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From: witters@tc.fluke.COM (John Witters)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Electric Fences (safety)
Message-ID: <13591@fluke.COM>
Date: 3 Jan 90 18:52:45 GMT
References: <5593@shamu.WV.TEK.COM> <12346@cbnewse.ATT.COM> <25525@cup.portal.com> <13569@fluke.COM>
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Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., Everett, WA
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In article <13569@fluke.COM> vince@tc.fluke.COM (Craig Johnson) writes:
>The moral:  Don't assume all electric fences are safe to grab!  You may
>be betting your life if you are wrong!

Let me add to this.  When I was a kid we had an electric fence charger we used
to keep our cattle from knocking down fences.  The charger ran off the AC mains
and had a step up transformer in series with an interrupter and with fuses on
both the primary and secondary.  The interrupter applied power to the fence for
one second every two seconds (i.e. a 0.5 Hz square wave).  One of the
advertised features of this charger was that the arc it put out would cut down
any weeds that happened to fall or grow into the fence.

We used pieces of insulated wire to electrify sections of the fence.  One
morning I went out to do something and I grabbed the insulated wire to
disconnect a section of fence.  As it happened, there was a hole in the
insulation where I grabbed it.  Since it was morning, there was dew on the
ground, and since it was summer, I was barefoot.  Well, the interrupter applied
power to the fence, and I found myself paralyzed for the next second until the
interrupter removed power.  While I was standing there I smelled something
burning.  When I was able to remove my hand from the wire, I found a small hole
etched into the skin on my thumb.  I didn't think much about it at the time,
but now I realize that the interrupter may have saved me from something worse
than a sore thumb.

Next Time:  What happened when my dog pissed on the fence.

-John

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