Re: Jacob's Ladder "Snap" (fwd)

[Steven Roys <sroys@xxxxxxxx>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2003 09:39:14 -0700
From: Gomez <gomez@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: High Voltage list <hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Jacob's Ladder "Snap" (fwd)

On Monday, December 15, 2003, at 09:40  AM, High Voltage list wrote:

> Original poster: Steven Roys <sroys@xxxxxxxx>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 10:56:35 -0800 (PST)
> From: Chris Roberts <quezacotl_14000000000000@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: High Voltage list <hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Jacob's Ladder "Snap"
>
>
> Hi Everybody,
>
> I was recently talking to one of my neighbors about the "strange
> lightning thing" that I play around with, and he told me of hearing a
> story about how a Jacob's ladder can hurt your hearing. He said that
> when the arc starts at the bottom, the "snap" heard is extremely loud,
> but so quick of a pulse that you don't register it as being as loud as
> it is. He didn't know whether or not it was true, and it sounded like
> a techno-myth to me, but has anyone else heard (pun intended) about
> this?

  Sounds like horse manure to me.  From what I have read about the
mechanisms of hearing damage, it works a lot like other exposure
hazards, that is" damage = dose rate x length of exposure. So if the
snap lasts for only a small fraction of a second, _and_ it doesn't seem
loud, then hearing damage seems unlikely.