*** Prank Alert ***

I hope you left the 1-cent-tip, as in, no I'm not forgetting to tip, and your service sucked, dearie. Seems like a stupid trick for a waitress to pull.

Hard to imagine this actually happening, and, the circuitry to deliver the shock is not cheap.

i

Um, it happened. Absolutely. This morning.

The circuitry is cheap. I've built it before.

1 transistor, a little 4 ohm to 10k ohm transformer, a couple of resistors. I didn't use it to shock people, but to make a cheap geiger counter.

It looks like there's a whole line of shocking gag products:

That's weird. I wonder how it worked? Surely a flashlight would need to have two terminals in order to give you an effective shock? Maybe the switch is one terminal and the body the other?

Best wishes,

Chris

I can see the homocide rate rising already batw

To tell the truth, I didn't get a good look at it. I have a very well developed 'jerk' reaction to getting shocked and the flashlight ended up on the floor.

I think that the endcap was insulated from the body and the two were the terminals. It was small, a little bigger than a single AA cell flashlight.

It was clearly AC and didn't stop until I flinged it from my hand.

Actaully, I would be quite amused by a trick like that. I would likely still leave a decent tip, but not everyone is amused by geek stuff.

Chris

40+ years ago I had a vaguely lighter shaped 3/4 x 1 1/2 x 3" box with a press bar in the one long side. When you tried to light it you got hit. My brother killed it when I handed it to him while we were fishing and it ended up in the lake. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

I think it could be done cheaply enough. You just need a little transformer and a switch. I made a "cattle prod" while I was in high school which worked just like that, but it was more often used for prodding people! I still have it somewhere.

Chris

We had an ink pen at the shop that was like this. It used 2 of the little batteries like used in the "hearing aids". Body was metal, and the plunger on top was too. Insulated inside, to avoid the direct short when not electrocuting someone. After a few times forgetting, I could finally hold it, but it was a bit tough. Felt like the current was pulsing. As for the waitress, I am actually expecting it. We have a cafe we go to everyday for lunch, and someone is always pulling something on someone there.

If it still works, you didn't fling it hard enough.

This reminded me of a story, with the roles reversed...

I had a friend who was working at a seaside restaurant in a resort town. One day one of her customers started giving her a hard time about his baked potato, said it was hard as rock. After a quick inspection it became clear it *was* a rock. She apologized profusely and whisked it away to the kitchen on the pretense of fetching another potato, and threw the rock out the window into the ocean. The guy came looking for her and his prized gag rock and was very pissed off when she told him what she'd done with it, but what could he say? She said it was well worth forfeiting a tip.

Ned Simmons

I don't disbelieve you, Jim, I was just trying to work out how the flashlight worked. I reckon it must be more complex than it might look, because I doubt it would work without two terminals. Was the switch metallic, or might there have been an extra terminal on the underside of the flashlight? I didn't try my cattle prod with just one terminal. I think my father suggested using two at the time!

You don't need the transistor or resistors if you just connect the cell and the transformer's low voltage winding in series with a switch.

Chris

The manager wouldn't have been amused.

Now that would require some more sophisticated circuitry. You just get one kick out of a transformer, cell and switch. Mind you, that's usually enough. My cattle prod produced about 400-500 volts!

Chris

Yeah, especially when somebody with a weak heart drops dead a minute later, and the cops drag her off for 1st degree murder with armed criminal action. Then a couple days later, her court-appointed lawyer tells her she could get the death penalty. Yeah, a GREAT joke!

Jon

OK, that's reached the level known as "tetanizing". This thing is NO JOKE. If somebody had a cut on their hand, or maybe held it in both hands and got the current across the chest, it could kill them. I don't think I would have called the police and reported that I was assaulted with a weapon, but some people sure would. It might get REAL HOT in that restaurant with a dozen detectives interviewing everybody, especially the manager and owner.

Jon

That reminds me of a high school graduation I attended years ago, one of the graduates had a hand buzzer.... Memorable....

ED

There are some cigarette lighters that do the same thing.

"A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them; the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences."

- Proverbs 22:3

I split a copper toilet float, and put a big cap inside, reassembling with an insulating ring in the center. Charge off a 110vt power cord...leave it laying around like a copper colored easter egg....

Made one pretty young thing piss her pants. Sigh..and she had come over to boink my brains out too...

Gunner

"A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them; the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences."

- Proverbs 22:3