Life Lessons

I received another life lesson today: never trust old and decrepit electronics to not shock you during normal operation.

Today I tried to connect a terminator to the BNC output (NOT the high voltage line) of a very old muon counter. As I was putting it on, I was watching the oscilloscope very intently. Suddenly the occasional calm pulses from muons jolted into a chaotic mess of squiggles, which seemed somewhat strange to me. That is, it seemed strange until I realized that 1500V (at low current, thankfully) was shocking me rather forcefully. Finally, the usual seizure-like impulse kicked in, and everything flew completely out of my hands and onto the floor. Within a few minutes I was fine, except for my pinky, which lost a few square millimeters of epidermis, vaporized by the shock.

I suppose there is a reason why my door has a big sign that says: "DANGER: HIGH VOLTAGE". Incidentally, my door also has another sign that says: "CAUTION: Radioactivity!". Things do not bode well.