Idle battery voltage on a standard British line is DC 50V nominal, with the tip (A-wire) at ground and the ring (B-wire) at -50V. That alone would be enough to give a fair tingle to someone immersed in water.
Ringing voltage can reach over 100V on short lines or where no ringers are loading the supply, and that's superimposed on the 50V DC battery.
Cadence 0.375 s ON, 0.25s OFF,
0.375s ON, 2.0 s OFF repeated.
Minor difference in nominal specification for Britain: 0.4 on, 0.2 off, 0.4 on, 2.0 off.
Thinking about another recent thread, perhaps I should add that in the days of the former GPO monopoly on telephone wiring, there is no way they would have even considered a request for a phone to be installed in a bathroom.
[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 01-10-2004).]
