straydog wrote:
. . .
arcs and smoke can be intimidating. Just the surprise from an arc can
make you jump in an unpredictable way and if not hurt yourself from the
electrical shock, then you'll bang your head or something else. . .

In a previous life, I was reaching way to the back of a cabinet of radar
equipment for some reason. I was lying on my stomach, my arm was
extended all the way, and my head was into the cabinet doorway about at
the forehead level, with a couple of inches clearance above and below.
Of course all the safety precautions were followed -- some of the heavy
ground radar stuff I worked on was easily lethal. But there was some
charged capacitor, something hot from another cabinet of gear, I don't
recall, and I got a minor shock. My instinctive reaction was to jerk my
head up, and it hit the top of the doorway. That hurt and made me
reflexively jerk my head downward, hitting the bottom of the doorway
with my forehead. That caused a jerk back upward, hitting the top again,
and so forth. There I was, oscillating up and down, beating my head to a
pulp, knowing exactly what was happening but helpless to do anything
about it. It continued for what seemed like a long time, until I was
sore enough that I couldn't feel one more whack, when I was finally able
to stop and extract my head and arm. I guess I've felt as stupid a few
times since, but only a few times.

And when you bend your arm every which way in order to get at something,
it might go in all twisted contorted, but it comes out fast and straight
when you get bit. I've lost a bit of skin that way, too.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL