OK, this is probably more of a rant... none of us are likely to be able to directly affect this fad ...

The internet is starting to see a wave of "electrical practical jokes." That is, fools hooking up high voltages to doorknobs, light switches, etc ... for the purpose of giving a surprise shock to the unsespecting. Not to be outdone, the voltages of these games seems to be climbing ... 7.000 ... 10,000 ... etc.

Where this becomes relevant in our forum is not to say 'don't do this.' All of you already know that! Instead, the real risk is ....

These noobs will move on to, later, attempting to do electrical work ... in their homes, dorms, apartments, etc. They will NOT have the proper respect, or knowledge, to do this safely. After all, they will reason, it's "only" 120 volts.

The activities of the ignorant are going to create hazards to the rest of us. Personally, I hope that legal action - even criminal charges - is taken against these pranksters. There's just too much at stake here.

Hang on a minute John,
I don't see where you equate a one-off prank with doing "electrical work" later in life, we've all done something silly in our youth that we maybe weren't proud of.

Sure, YouTube and sites like that have a lot to answer for, but is it the fact that people can now show any idiotic thing they like these days in front of everyone else these days, where as before hand they would have been ignored like the simpletons that they are.

There was an article here on the Net some time back, when employers are looking for new staff, they go straight to places like Facebook and the like and find out what sort of a person you are and what comments you have made.
Better not link your FB account to any stupid pranks on YouTube, wether you did them or not.

Regardless of the qualifications you hold, even if you played up a bit at University,youngun's be afraid, very afraid!

I think he's saying he's afraid of the possibility of those pranksters doing electrical work in the future, whether it be for a living or just "improving" their homes.




Which is why I have the plainest Myspace of all my friends. (Not that I do that kind of crap online or off, usually I'm the butt of the joke/prank so I don't pass it on!)

Ian A.

I wasn't implying these pranksters would ever have a REAL job doing electrical work.

I have seen - and these pranks are but the latest example - more indications that "electricity" has lost some of the mystery that keep the DIY from attempting things himself.

Anyone dumb enough to wire 10,000 volts to a doorknob (one recent example) isn't above tinkering with their dorm's power in an attempt to get "more power." (Whatever they mean by that).

I am reminded of a recent service call ... near 0F, no heat ... where I found the furnace served by black, red, white, and green wires. In this instance, every wire was 'hot,' except the black - which was the 'neutral.' The disconnect was the last item in line. In other words, the entire thing was wired backwards.

The furnace guy had made some fireworks, AFTER he had opened the disconnect. Lock out, tag out, and it was all still hot. That's what happens when the neutral is switched.

Little things like that are why these pranks alarm me. These fools can't be bothered to learn, let alone follow, "the rules."

When I was teaching high school electricity the students had to do a project. One of them wanted to make an electrified toilet seat. Being the open minded person I am I said, sure, go for it. The kid ran hot & neutral under the seat, drilled a hole in each side of the seat an pushed a bare wire thru each. He even put a bit of paint on the wire tip to hide it. Testing was interesting ... he plugged it into a variac (which I controlled) and sat on it in a bathing suit. At about 90v he felt it. What could I do? I gave him an 'A'.

Scotch tape on the tips of a wiggy.
The wuss bag found it and complained.. perp...FIRED!!!
Both licensed guys 15+ yrs in the field, C'mon, check your stuff.
New guys are fun, just wack your pliers on the ladder and....

If electrical SAFETY had been a significant part of the course, you'd have had easy justification to give him an 'F'. But maybe I'd have given him a 'D' if it were wired to trip the bathroom GFCI when someone sits on the seat.

Here is my prank idea. It doesn't actually involve electricity (so it's actually safe). But it looks like it does, so it could be scary to the victim of the prank.

Take a duplex receptacle that has been damaged in some way other than its front face (e.g. screws bent, etc) and is otherwise waste. Cut the plastic faces off. Sand the faces down to the depth of a duplex plate. Attach (glue) the plate and the two faces to a piece of black construction paper with the faces in the plate holes. Put some double side sticky tape on the back of the paper.

Now just stick the fake outlet up in a bathtub just before the inspector arrives

Another variation is to cut the prongs of an old plug short enough to stick into the fake outlet above. Then glue the plug on so it stays. Trim up the wires that come out from the plug so the conductors are exposed. Stick it up where people would see it.

"If electrical SAFETY had been a significant part of the course, you'd have had easy justification to give him an 'F'. But maybe I'd have given him a 'D' if it were wired to trip the bathroom GFCI when someone sits on the seat."
Nah, when you're teaching in an 'inner city' school with kids who are put in your class because (as the administration put it) "they can't do anything else" you have to let your hair down occassionally. They knew about the GFCI rules, safety issues etc. Just to get this kid to see a project thru to the end was an acomplishment. BTW this was about 1998, last I heard of this kid was ~2004 and he was still in the trade and had just received his J-card. I'll bet this was one of the memories that helped him decide to stay in the trade. With respect to this one situation (& kid) I can live with my decision.

When I was younger, my dad built an "electric chair" to use with the church youth group. He put wire mesh on a chair. It was 120 that he stepped down through a trans. It was great fun. Guys would lose on purpose just to sit on it and see who could stand it the longest.

Things like that generate excitement in some people. They want to have the knowledge to design and build something with their own hands. Some will use the knowledge for good and others for evil.

I don't do any practical jokes with live power with anybody. We all need to trust each other when one says the power is off, there is no question. We may laugh about it but when you are working you need to be as safe as possible.

This thread reminds me of an episode of Flip This House and the flipper, Rudy, from California. Electricity is NO JOKE.

It wasn't really an electrical prank but my wife and her metal framers got the structural inspector on his last day (retiring).
They rigged a couple walls to just be standing there (no screws). Other folks were standing around with pieces of metal stud at the ready. He came in and grabbed the first stud in the vestibule to shake it like he always did. They kicked over the loose walls and everyone threw down the extra pieces they had. It looked and sounded like the whole place was coming down.
They got a laugh out of it

Perhaps 'pdh' stands for 'prank done here.' I notice that the title of this thread was changed ...

dang, just because I played pranks with fireworks as a kid doesn't mean.. nevermind.

It doesn't appear to me that anything has changed at all

Compare this prank from 1931:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bre/3100397154/in/set-72157611077138836/

with this one .... claiming to have 10,000 volts of potential, posted 1 month ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvT_2ja1WBE

That last post it looked like it was no more than 120V and rigged to give you a blast and short out across the knob giving a big flash and bang.

When I was younger we actually got our hands on an old 10,000 volt oil burner ignition transformer, and a pile of firecrackers. Basically all we did was set the transformer up out of view with a fire cracker across the secondary terminals and connect it to the switch controlled outlet at the side of the house. Wait until someone walks near the "device", close the switch momentarily and and BANG! Not only did it make all my buddies that came around jump about 10 feet straight up, it stopped the problem with door to door sales people as well.

A.D

Where does one get 10kV+ from these days without raising suspicion?
Sure,some years back you could get that from an ignition coil from a car, as in a Kettering ignition system, but now with electronic engine control systems, these sorts of things are becoming rare.
Some might say, that is a good thing.

Trumpy,

Neon transformers are limited by the NEC to 15KV terminal to terminal, or 7.5KV between any terminals and ground.

Another source for such high voltages .... again, becomming rare ... is the igniter transformer from an oil furnace.

HID ballasts can provide voltages anywhere between 600v and 1000v.

Then there is the case of "Mad Man Markum," who stole PoCo transformers, back-fed them, and created a Jacob's ladder arc that crossed his porch (about 6 ft.). Now there's some voltage!

You can get some huge voltages from a simple Van De Graaff generator and still be fairly safe. You can spin one up with any small motor, like something out of one of those $10 table fans. I made one many years ago and the big problem then was finding a suitable belt. (at IBM it was easy to come up with junk motors) I ended up buying the belt from Edmund or one of those other mail order "science" places. The "ball" was an old metal globe that I buffed all the paint off of. I imagine now days with the internet, parts are easier to find.

Mike:
Agreed the newer cars have electronic engine controls but all gasoline fueled cars still have an ignition coil or a set of ignition coil "packs" that could be used as a source of high voltage if a suitable driver circuit were used.

Another source for high voltage thats easily obtainable would be a "fly transformer" out of an old CRT television set. Also the power supply out of an electrostatic air cleaner would be a good source of high voltage D.C..

A.D

There are any number of small transformers that will give you a spike with lots of volts if you have a sharp enough spike on the input. I have seen fence charger circuits that would work with a wall wart transformer. You could just use a small relay, picked through the N/C points (basically a buzzer) to give you the pulses. I wouldn't fool with that since a multivibrator circuit is so trivial to build, particularly if you just want it to go, without caring much about frequency stability.

The door knob scan is likely 220V - it's scanned out of an Austrian book. Doesn't really make much of a difference though.

15 years ago there wasn't any problem getting high voltage sources... I got several old neon transformers even being an elementary school kid. Never did anything though except dismantle one.

At the same site they also gave me old can lights wired with asbestos clad cord...