From Helmut Zarzycki and Tom Nash
My personal experience does not quite conform to J. A. Terry’s opinion about the relative dangers of DC versus AC (Letters, 16 September).
As a greenhorn engineer, I suffered a stroke from a 110-volt DC line, with the current passing from hand to hand. I felt no pain, but was completely paralysed and could neither break free nor call for help. Fortunately, after a few seconds, someone noticed something strange going on (my unusual silence?) and banged the red knob. Otherwise, I might have been slowly cooked or electrocuted by the failure of some organ (heart? lung?).
In my later career I experienced numerous shocks from 220 to 380-volt AC (50 hertz), but either the jolt itself broke contact or I was able to drop the tool or wire (rather quickly, I may say). There never was anything again like the DC paralysis.
Over 40 years ago, in the course of an informal meeting at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, R. B. Bourdiloon did a rather hair-raising experiment. Using a foot-operated rheostat, he gradually increased the DC passed across his body via his hands dipping into separate salt-water electrodes.
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He got to over one amp without ill effect, but mentioned that any interruption at high current would probably have killed him. I do not remember if he produced any evidence supporting this view.
It makes me wonder if there is really any need to “fry” the occupants of the electric chair.
