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Safety Rant





From: 	Greg Leyh[SMTP:lod-at-pacbell-dot-net]
Sent: 	Wednesday, December 10, 1997 4:32 AM
To: 	Tesla List
Subject: 	Safety Rant

Russ Thornton wrote:

> >You bet!  I plan to take some streamer base current measurements from
> >inside
> >the sphere, as well as the current between the coil and top electrode.
> >
> >An acquaintence and his girlfriend wish to be the first members of the
> >"Two Million Volt Club"-- however in endeavors such as this, one needs to
> >ask the question: "how would I explain this to the Safety Review Board if
> >something were to go wrong?"
> >
> >
> >-GL
> 
> Gee, I've heard of the Transportation Safety Review Board.  Is there a
> Tesla Safety Review board? ;^))

The bottom line is, I don't want to find out...

My years of working in DOE research labs have left me with a deep
paranoia of the 'safety nazis' that lie in waiting, behind any piece
of useful equipment.  Does anyone here remember Admiral Watkins' 
"Tiger Team" circa 1992?  The Admiral was quoted as saying "I am 
deeply concerned with the previous over-emphasis on research in 
government laboratories", which launched the new DOE safety campaign.  
We got off relatively unscathed, with only $tens of millions in new 
safety fines.  Poor Oak Ridge got socked for over $one billion!  
Most of the machine tools in our shop were locked off by the Tiger Team, 
including my favorite little Hardinge lathe, which wore a new sign that 
stated  "This machine contains exposed rotating parts -- DO NOT USE".  
I always felt that the 'exposed rotating parts' were what made it
so useful!!  Most incidental machining is 'subbed-out' now, at a
considerable expense.
Don't let this happen to you -- Safety is $$$big business$$$ these
days!!

-GL