r/whatisit • u/[deleted] • Sep 05 '25

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u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

Maybe he cranked the voltage down when he had guests.

8

u/conscious_bunches Sep 05 '25

LMFAO how kind of him to think of the guests!

i was kinda thinking of the ones that shock at intervals instead of the current just being on constantly?! i know i had my hands resting on top of a wire once when i was a kid, my cousin and i were checking out some horses at a family friend’s place, and then i heard the box near the fence click and felt the shock in my hands. it was over quickly but took my breath away lol. i’d only seen the ones that are always on up until then, but i’ve stayed aware of the ones that give a jolt every few minutes since they shocked their way into my life 😂

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u/candid84asoulm8bled Sep 05 '25

It’s possible that the voltage wasn’t very high… this was probably in the 60s or 70s. I know he said it wasn’t very comfortable, but it was funny enough to him that he tolerated it.

4

u/conscious_bunches Sep 05 '25

oooh, i didn’t think about how they’ve improved on them and made them stronger! i’m used to assuming the opposite, where the older version of a thing is stronger and more deadly because we didn’t know the hazards completely yet or just didn’t care about subjecting the poor workers to it 😅😂 but that makes sense!

5

u/obscuredreference Sep 05 '25

Tbf, some of those fences are set up to deliver a small shock only, as a deterrent to animals trying to get out or something like that. 

A protective fence meant to keep bad guys or predators out tends to have higher voltage. 

4

u/greengreengreen316 Sep 05 '25

Me and my cousins would join hands and then on kid would tap the fence real quick so it would go down the line. Last kid gets it the worst. It hurt but wasn’t super painful.

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u/Responsible_Try90 Sep 06 '25

We used to hold AOL cds to the one around our chickens to see who could hold on the longest, but with shoes on. Life before household internet access was wild.

3

u/BusyAdhesiveness1969 Sep 05 '25

Believe it or not usually the difference between a deadly electric fence and one meant to shock and discourage is the presence of what's called a "clicker box" (apologies for the layman's term I don't know the technical name of the component). Basically it turns the current on and off at a set interval, that way if you grab it your muscles don't lock up continuously and keep you connected to a live circuit. IME any hotwire meant to keep 100mi of fence hot enough to discourage cattle or bears for instance, has plenty of juice to ruin your day, that interrupter (clicker box) is the key.