Shock giver

1

1929 essex

Junior Member
About 50 years ago a friend of mine was given a 31 Chevrolet. His uncle that gave it to him was a traveling salesman and he would sleep in it. So nobody would disturb him he had some kind of thing that when he lowered a chain to the ground if you touched the car you would get a shock. We had a lot of fun with it and I would like to put one in my Model A. I think it had a model T coil. If anyone knows how to build one I sure would like to know, Thank You.
 
Just in case some may want to try this coil trick, it may be worth mentioning that people years ago"used to" close their places of business with a shotgun firmly attached to a gun bench with a string attached to the trigger and the other end of the string attached to the front entrance door.

Then the business owners exited via a separate door.

When a robber opened the front door, the attached string pulled the trigger. Strictly illegal today.

Also, years ago, nothing was ever said either after many thieves got peppered with lead for stealing chickens, robbing fruit trees, and/or stealing pecans or walnuts etc. Attempted murder today.

Something tells me that with today's laws and lawyers ....... if some murdering thief had a pistol, and he pointed it at your head while you were in your Model A, and then next touched your "hot" coil wired Model A, whereby he raised his hand and shot himself in the bottom jaw and survived, you may be in more trouble than one could ever imagine.

Don't even mention how the press and many others would get far more involved if in addition, this person had about (4) or so illegal EBT cards in his wallet.

Kids today do not believe that in our rural surroundings years aqo, we went to school carrying cap pistols in holsters, "with live black powder caps" to play cowboys during recess.

Shocking ????
 
I did that back when I was in high school, to keep the kids from leaning on my car. Not hard to do, but I'm not going to tell you how. I do not want the responsibility. Sure did make them jump.

By the way we have a 28 Essex two door.
 
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Ever notice rusted out bottom circumferences of galvanized metal fence post surrounding paved dog yards.

Vintage Model A and vintage Chevrolet wire wheels in some rural neighborhoods with lots of stray dogs were similar prime targets.

Knew a guy who occasionally installed a sheet of sheet metal leaning up against his car's tire while attached to a vintage dry battery operated fence shocking device.

He easily permanently educated all of the wandering unleashed rural neighborhood dogs with just one little squirt.

Come to think of it, we never had fire hydrants back then for dogs ..... maybe one reason why car wheels were so tempting.
 
When I was 5 years old my older brother told me the easiest way to turn off our ancient Western Auto lawn mower off was to pee on the spark plug. I am 62 now and still do not trust him........��
 
I'd bet the coil was hooked up just like a fencer, where the high voltage goes to the fence wire (body) and the chain goes to ground the unit. Farm fencers want you to drive a rod quite deep into the ground to secure a good ground. I wonder if a ground is needed or effective for a car body?
 
These were made from Model T coils as someone has guessed. Properly connected the coil can be used as an emergency ignition. I have a NOS unit sold by J.C. Whitney as an emergency kit. I once drove my 36 Studebaker across town using my "shocker" for power when my Dad took my keys by mistake and left me stranded. Rainmaker Ron
 
As a Model T owner, too, let me tell you that getting shocked by a running "T" engine is NO fun. If you've been into the Model T hobby long enough, eventually you'll get "snake bitten" by touching a part of the coil that you shouldn't while the engine is running, or accidentally touching a spark plug end while "shorting out" a plug during diagnostics. YE-OOOWW!!! Your hand will quiver for the rest of the day. It won't kill you, but these days if you zap someone else (as warned), that same quivering hand will reach for a telephone to call the nearest shyster lawyer.
Marshall
 
H.L., Your comment brings back memories for me, as I had a friend back in the late 70's who had me come replace her clothes line post as the dog's had peed on it and the base was completely eaten away. When on the flight line at China Lake, Ca. beck in the late 60's, I remember there being some tech briefs dealing with mag wheels being peed upon by flight line crews and them being ruined.

My fence is too high up from the ground where the previous owner installed it. I have a dog that will dig right out from under the fence in a heart beat if not watched. I thought of installing an electric fence back there just to nail/bite him once to cure him of his digging habit and then remove it. We have had so much rain though that the area is often muddy and wet, so the fence probably would not do much but short itself out.
 

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As a teenager, I tried shutting off the lawnmower by pushing the lead off the spark plug, once. Previously, I got zapped while turning the dizzy shaft of a Jeep setup that was on a display board with a battery while holding the cap in my other hand. I'll have to think about how I made a circuit with the plastic cap in series.
 
I remember before we had telephones in every home, just one of our neighbors in our rural area had a hand crank phone that one could crank to call an operator 20 miles away. She in turn had a switch board where she could connect a caller to the next largest city, and from there out to the world, etc., etc.

His phone lines ran overhead up the nearest railroad track about 1/2 mile away, then phone lines ran along the railroad tracks with all wires on "Telephone" poles.

Think I remember hearing that pranksters could wire these vintage crank type phones to door knobs and similar objects and shock people by rotating the vintage telephone crank.

The old military wired crank type field phones usually encased in O.D. canvas may have been similar.

Never had any intentions to try to shock people ...... with electricity, that is.
 
When in the Navy, around the ET shop we would charge up large capacitors and leave them on the work bench to discourage people that came into he shop not to pick up things. If any of you remember picture tubes in TV's they could hold a very large charge and there were warnings about discharging them before working inside. Think one of the newer battery powered electric fence chargers would be sufficient to discourage people from touching the vehicle if a warning sign were posted telling them not to touch. Probably be like the wet paint sign so have to see if it is wet.
 
For a warning, I have Greggs' MACHETTE hanging by a magnet, inside my Security Screen! If that's not sufficient, I'll tell them, "I KNOW KARATE"!!! If I end up in the HOOSEGOW, I won't have to COOK!
Bill Mean
 
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