[SML] Rock Singer Electrocuted on Stage

[Mt. Angel Performing Arts Center]

My memory is a bit hazy but as I recall there were both polarized and 
non-polarized 2-wire cord cap connectors  . . .

The non-polarized (both blades the same size) were generally used on 
equipment that had a power transformer to isolate the line from the 
equipment circuitry and a 'chassis ground' was derived from the 
transformer secondary.

Equipment without power transformers (cheap table radios, intercoms, 
etc.) derived a 'chassis ground' by capacitive coupling the chassis to 
the 'cold' power line connection (the wider blade of the cord cap).

In the TV shop I worked at as a teenager we had both non-polarized and 
polarized cheater cords...

Carla

I was shocked when my psychiatrist told me I was imagining things. I'm 
not seeing a psychiatrist.

On 11/27/2014 1:18 PM, Charlie Richmond via Stagecraft wrote:
> On 27 November 2014 at 13:08, tech dept via Stagecraft
> <stagecraft at theatrical.net <mailto:stagecraft at theatrical.net>> wrote:
>
>     Time for me to surface from 'lurking mode'.
>     Before the early 1960's there was NO ground pin or most cases not
>     even a grounded outlet to plug it into, so there was a paper or
>     mylar capacitor (.1 0r 0.047 uf @600 volt) either tied from the WIDE
>     pin of the AC mains
>
>
> actually, back then both pins were narrow so there was no polarization
> at all and the capacitor (or resistor, since this was an alternative
> since there was no standardization at all) was simply tied to an
> arbitrary AC input wire.  This is why many products with metal chassis
> felt like they were vibrating at 60Hz when you lightly touched and drew
> your finger across their surface...
>
> Some manufacturers connected a capacitor or resistor from both AC lines
> to the chassis in order to split the difference.
>
> Charlie
>
> --
> * Charlie Richmond -http://www.RichmondSoundDesign.com
> <http://www.richmondsounddesign.com/>
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