Same Hazard Different Equipment; & In Puerto Rico [where US standards
are applicable]
Liviing at the YMCA in 1980, I rigged a small 3 Pipe (EMT) Fixture to
test & inspect stuff with a 3outlets/1switch head on a 1900 box and a
lamp fxiture coming out of it, one of the pipes slightly bent out held
my soldering pencil just right at the top just below the outlets,
together with the other 2 pipes it opened up at the bottom like a Y and
held up just right with nylon wire ties and actually looked cool., with
one of those Aluminum Lamp Shades on a Gooseneck.
I had no wire so I snaked a piece of BX into it & added a plug, this
worked ifne in the 2 prong outlets at the "Y" Then: I moved back to PR
and connected it into an outlet in my fathers garage It Took Hold of me
& Wouldn't let me Go ! my hand cramped over the metalclad plug, I
managed to push myself off the wall and break free... I took the BX off
and cabled it right and tested the circuit., the Contractors wiring had
somehow opened and shunted the Neutral inside the unerground pipe, hence
when I tried pulling the wires out to rewire it, the White neutral
conductor would not pull out of the piping so I couldn't rewire the
underfloor the concrete slab run.... It was hopless I thought & told
Dad, we sold the house a few years after.... I couldv'e been killed.
thinking about it I tried to eliminte that shunted conductor to feed in
a new one, but i recall the snake got stuck & wouldn't go through
either, I could have used the Red Conductor for pull but there was a
definite wire jam inside the pipe about half way under the garage. we
moved.
Only God Knows how the new owner resolved it if he has :-o
®oy
-------------------------------------------
From:
[email protected] (Scott Dorsey)
NOTE: this experience happened in the U.S.A. and other countries may
differ
a friend of mine had a phonograph player in his basement. the unit
operated fine, but if you touched a metal part of the player, and a
metal support post in the basement, you would get a mild shock (about
half of what I've gotten from touching 110v mains by accident)
This is because it was a hot chassis player. That is no longer
acceptable in the US, but it was very popular for many years for cheap
consumer electronics to operate without a power transformer and use a
hot chassis. For almost any cheap table radio, record player, or TV set
made before 1970 this was the case, and for a lot of TV sets well into
the eighties it remained the case.
Later on in life, I found out that if you attempt to bypass the safety
feature of polarized p,ugs for non-grounded equipment, or if the
electrical outlet was wired incorrectly, this happens.
That just makes the problem worse, yes.
as you are on a foriegn system, I cannot be sure, but I'd advise to
switch the live and neutral lines. and also put an earth line in there
also.
Grounding is a good idea, but if there is chassis leakage, that is bad
and it should be fixed if possible.
--scott
