A Shocking Experience

When I was at work earlier this week (yes, it's already my weekend -- I love "retired" life) some guys came around asking if my group had a megger; they weren't really sure what one was (we normally deal with digital voltages), but had heard that our group might have one. It turns out we did, and as I was explaining how they worked, I talked about some of the uses of a megger on a submarine. (Some of those uses were actually in accordance with the approved Maintenance Requirement.)

This got me thinking about some of the electrical "pranks" that are often played on submarines. I'll be honest -- I was never comfortable working around electricity on the boat (probably due to an unfortunate incident when I was growing up on the farm and accidentally peed across an electric fence -- yes, the shock can travel up a stream of urine). From back in my days of ET "A" school where people were always getting tossed capacitors that had been charged on a 9V battery to the classic "hook a megger up to something metal, then hide and let 'er rip when some unsuspecting NUB touches it" prank on the boat, I knew that Submariners had to have a healthy respect for high voltages, as well as those who may try to hurt them with same for laughs.

My favorite "electrical prank" was discussed here. Anybody have any good stories about electricity and the Submariners who used (or misused) it?