Author Topic: Everything to do with Colwyn Bay  (Read 626395 times)

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Offline Fester

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Re: Everything to do with Colwyn Bay
« Reply #211 on: June 10, 2011, 09:58:27 pm »
If I had been in THAT tailback, I would have been egging the selfish #&@T to jump... and quick!

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Offline Ian

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Re: Everything to do with Colwyn Bay
« Reply #212 on: June 11, 2011, 08:21:26 am »
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If I had been in THAT tailback, I would have been egging the selfish #&@T to jump... and quick!

Obviously, we can't possibly know what prompted him to do something like that, although attempted suicides in the UK run at 800 per week.  However, the main issue is information. I wonder if the various radio news systems were able to warn those in the queue about what was happening?
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.  ― Michel de Montaigne

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Offline born2run

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Re: Everything to do with Colwyn Bay
« Reply #213 on: June 11, 2011, 04:07:29 pm »
Very sad indeed. 100 people on average kill themselves on the tubes in London every year

Offline Yorkie

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Re: Everything to do with Colwyn Bay
« Reply #214 on: June 11, 2011, 04:31:13 pm »
Some interesting statistics here
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=1092
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Offline Ian

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Re: Everything to do with Colwyn Bay
« Reply #215 on: June 11, 2011, 04:40:00 pm »
What's particularly interesting is that the female suicide rate is and always has been significantly lower than the male.
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.  ― Michel de Montaigne

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Offline Yorkie

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Re: Everything to do with Colwyn Bay
« Reply #216 on: June 11, 2011, 04:56:58 pm »
Very sad indeed. 100 people on average kill themselves on the tubes in London every year

I had the unpleasant task, with others, of looking for the bits of one poor soul along the tracks.
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Offline Trojan

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Re: Everything to do with Colwyn Bay
« Reply #217 on: June 11, 2011, 05:37:32 pm »
Very sad indeed. 100 people on average kill themselves on the tubes in London every year

I had the unpleasant task, with others, of looking for the bits of one poor soul along the tracks.

I used to hear stories of homeless males urinating onto the tracks from the platform. The third rail (middle) carries a high voltage to power the train.

The current would travel up the stream of urine and electrocute the person. 

Offline DaveR

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Re: Everything to do with Colwyn Bay
« Reply #218 on: June 11, 2011, 05:41:59 pm »
There are suicide pits at every Tube Station, so that someone jumping off the platform will fall far enough down not to be injured by the train.

Lots of Tube stories here:
http://www.trainweb.org/tubeprune/unstories.htm

Offline Merddin Emrys

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Re: Everything to do with Colwyn Bay
« Reply #219 on: June 11, 2011, 06:02:19 pm »
I used to hear stories of homeless males urinating onto the tracks from the platform. The third rail (middle) carries a high voltage to power the train.

The current would travel up the stream of urine and electrocute the person. 

Is that true or are you taking the p**s?  ;D
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Offline Trojan

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Re: Everything to do with Colwyn Bay
« Reply #220 on: June 11, 2011, 06:45:21 pm »
I used to hear stories of homeless males urinating onto the tracks from the platform. The third rail (middle) carries a high voltage to power the train.

The current would travel up the stream of urine and electrocute the person. 

Is that true or are you taking the p**s?  ;D

 _))*

Offline Yorkie

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Re: Everything to do with Colwyn Bay
« Reply #221 on: June 11, 2011, 06:57:57 pm »
I used to hear stories of homeless males urinating onto the tracks from the platform. The third rail (middle) carries a high voltage to power the train.

The current would travel up the stream of urine and electrocute the person.  

Which just goes to illustrate that one should always pee in short spurts!    L0L
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Offline Ian

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Re: Everything to do with Colwyn Bay
« Reply #222 on: June 11, 2011, 07:04:04 pm »
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The current would travel up the stream of urine and electrocute the person. 

It doesn't.  Urine doesn't discharge as a single stream , but as thousands of unconnected droplets, thus preventing the passage of electricity.
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.  ― Michel de Montaigne

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes.

Offline Trojan

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Re: Everything to do with Colwyn Bay
« Reply #223 on: June 11, 2011, 07:15:38 pm »
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The current would travel up the stream of urine and electrocute the person.  

It doesn't.  Urine doesn't discharge as a single stream , but as thousands of unconnected droplets, thus preventing the passage of electricity.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/202/has-anybody-gotten-electrocuted-peeing-on-the-third-rail

Marshall Houts's Where Death Delights (1967) contains the sad story of one Joseph Patrick O'Malley, a man with two unfortunate habits: heavy drinking and wandering through subway tunnels.

One morning, O'Malley's mangled body was found in a tunnel 50 yards from the nearest station. He had apparently been struck and killed by a train.

But an autopsy turned up another cause: "The burns on the head of the penis and on the thumb and forefinger were obviously electrical burns … The stream of urine had come into contact with the 600 volts of the third rail. The current had coursed up the stream to cause the burns on his body as the electricity entered it.

"In all probability, he was dead from electrocution before the train ever hit his body."


Others have their doubts, however.

The combination of water and electricity is notoriously volatile — so much so that there might be a built-in safety factor, i.e., the shock would be great enough to knock you down. This would spoil your aim and cut off the current before the electricity could do its lethal work on your heart muscles.

In any case the experience would not be pleasant. So take a tip from your Uncle Cecil: play it cool, stay in school, and watch where you're spreading those vital fluids.

(2009 addition: The Mythbusters TV show has pointed out that the urine stream would break into droplets shortly after exiting the penis and wouldn't provide a continuous path for the flow of current. However, it's possible that at sufficiently high voltage the juice could arc past the air gap. The UK Daily Mail reported in 2008 that a Polish tourist had been electrocuted after urinating on a 750-volt rail in London, and a 14-year-old boy was reportedly killed doing the same on a 600-volt rail in Chicago in 1991. We have also belatedly learned of a 1977 case in which an inebriated Chicago man was electrocuted after walking onto ground-level tracks and urinating on the third rail at close range. Available documents indicate his penis was exposed but provide no further details. Notwithstanding uncertainties about these cases, caution with respect to peeing and third rails is advised.

Offline Ian

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Re: Everything to do with Colwyn Bay
« Reply #224 on: June 12, 2011, 08:41:55 am »
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However, it's possible that at sufficiently high voltage the juice could arc past the air gap.

That's right, although the dielectric breakdown voltage for air is approximately 3000 V/mm (= 3 kV/mm), but it can depend on other factors such as the geometry of the gap and the air pressure.  Generally, however, it's unlikely that anything less than 1000v would bridge that gap. Much more likely, given the first recorded instance was of a drunkard whose coordination would also be somewhat suspect, is that the unfortunate individual in question touched the rail by some other means, albeit fleetingly. That could easily tip him into more direct contact.  As to the others, would any sane and sober individual ever get close to a third rail?
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.  ― Michel de Montaigne

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes.