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Old April 3rd 08, 06:52 AM posted to uk.transport.london,uk.railway,uk.rec.subterranea
MaxB MaxB is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Feb 2007
Posts: 48
Default Crossing London tube tracks

On 3 Apr, 06:02, "Roger T." wrote:
Up to around 3000v DC off a local generator IIRC (thus the dimming of
the prison lights as seen in many films is a load of old cobblers).
There was a DC v AC competition involving the public killing of an
elephant in the early days of deciding the "best" way to fry people;
prior to that Thomas Edison "perfected" his AC system by killing
numerous cats and dogs in experiments :-
http://www.ccadp.org/electricchair.htm


The local SPCA used to electrocute animals. *Then they went to gassing, now
it's the needle.

--
Cheers

Roger T.
Home of the Great Eastern Railway at:-http://www.highspeedplus.com/~rogertra/
Latitude: *48° 25' North
Longitude: *123° 21' West


When we lived next to a 750v 3rd rail line, in the days when you could
have an allotment on the bank, our cat used to wander on to the tracks
quite regularly until one day, we assume, his tail swished against the
rail. When we finally caught up with him, there was a horrible smell
of singed fur and a bald patch on his tail. He kept away from the
rails after that.

I always understood that AC killed by high voltages but threw you off
so you might survive, but DC killed with low voltages because you just
stuck there!

MaxB