Читать книгу Electronics All-in-One For Dummies - Lowe Doug, Doug Lowe - Страница 56

IN THIS CHAPTER

Knowing the risks of working with electricity

Protecting yourself from the perils of stray electricity

Safeguarding your gear from static electricity

When I was a kid, I helped a good friend named Barry who built a Tesla coil. By “helped,” I mean that I hung out in his garage and watched while he meticulously wrapped thousands of turns of bare copper wire around a huge glass milk bottle, painted it with dozens of coats of lacquer, and polished the brass ball that attached to the very top of the coil. I’m quite certain he couldn’t have done it without me.

When it was done, we plugged it in and marveled at what it could do. Sparks flew at random a foot or two into the air from the ball at the top of the coil. If you held a crowbar in one hand, you could draw a spark several feet from the ball to the crowbar. The current coming off the ball flew through the air and into the crowbar, and then passed through our bodies and into the ground. You could also light up a fluorescent light tube simply by holding the tube in your hand within a few feet of the coil.

To this day, I cannot believe Barry’s parents let him build it. I know my parents wouldn’t have let me build one. My mom was kind of like the mom in A Christmas Story, who wouldn’t let her son Ralphie have a Red Ryder BB gun (the one with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time) because “you’ll shoot your eye out.”

That was my mom. No Tesla coils for me. Too dangerous.

None of the electronic projects described in this book are anywhere near as dangerous as a Tesla coil. In fact, most of them pose no threat at all. That being said, it’s important to remember that whenever you’re working with electricity, you’re working with something that’s potentially very dangerous.

The possibility of electric shock is always present whenever you work with electricity, but there are other potential dangers as well. You probably won’t shoot your eye out, but if you’re not careful, you might start a fire or otherwise injure yourself or someone else.

The purpose of this chapter, then, is to keep you safe while you experiment with electronics. Please read it well, and please heed every bit of advice I give here.