ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Video: Inventor of the GFCI self-testing shocks

Sorry this Video is in German language, but I reckon it's fun to watch anyways. Gottfried Biegelmeier of Felten&Gillaume Austria (Later Moeller, now Eaton), often credited as an inventor of the general use GFCI in 1957, endures a few hundred different AC shocks while connected to an ECG and with a defibrillator on standby, to test his products. You can see that the ECG is altered for a few beats after the shock, and the muscular contractions of the whole body.
Body resistances down to 1kohm, peak body currents around 0.4 Amps.

Back then, they took this as prove that a GFCI protects from heart fibrillation, even thou the mechanics take a moment to operate. I don't know how thoughts on this are today.

Stole the link from another German forum, TexasRanger knows which one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08r27LnLHCM

Just remember, The GFCI/RCD might prevent stopping your heart but it doesn't keep you from falling off the ladder.

Good one, 'ol Gottfried really had faith in what he was doing....

~S~

Just a quick note, he didn't invent the RCD. He did design the first working 30-mA RCD though. Older ones had trip currents of up to 3 amps but they were sold in fairly large numbers. My great-grandparents' house in Germany was built in 1955 and has an original 1-amp RCD serving a single three-phase socket right next to the meter, close to the front door. Everything else is straight TN-C with Diazed fuses, except for some 1970s upgrades. I suppose the reasoning behind putting that one socket on an RCD was that it was most likely to power questionable outdoor loads.

Interesting...

Got to be Committed!

Reminds me of the SawStop Guy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiYoBbEZwlk

Wow...

That's a really suitable name ............ "Got Fried" (Gottfried)

LOL