A recollection from childhood

[colonelpowers]

I guess that I was 4 or 5 when I saw my first model T, a 1917 Model T roadster, that belonged to a friend of my grandfather. I fell in love and as kids often do, I spent much too much time telling everyone about it. There was an old man, Ralph, who lived in our neighborhood, and I remember talking about the wonderful Model T with him. He told me a story of when he was a child and an unfriendly neighbor who had bought a new T. He said that the man was plagued by the kids in the neighborhood jumping up on the running board and hanging on as he drove by. The man, according to Ralph, in frustration, ran a wire from the magneto to the body and electrified the body of the car. The not grounded driver was unaffected but barefoot children were well grounded and would be shocked if they touched his car.

As a kid it was a great story. I am sure that I told it to alk the kids at school. I have thought about it occasionally through the years and have tried to think of a way that it could have actually worked but without success. A wire from the magneto to the body would just cause a short and even if it didn't I don't think that it would cause much of a shock. I wonder if there was a way that the man in Ralph's story actually was able to shock the neighborhood kids and keep them off of his car. One thing that I may remember from his story that I haven't mentioned is that I think he said something about a wire dragging on the ground.

Any ideas on how it might work?

[Wayne Sheldon]

Dragging a wire to the soil would be necessary. The rubber tires insolate or isolate the car from natural ground. The magneto provides AC power of low voltage which would need to be run through a coil (preferably not one of the four running the engine!) to raise the voltage high enough in order to overcome the natural resistance in the natural ground.
But it would work.

Back in the days a half century ago when good functional old coils could be found almost anywhere, people used to "hot up" cars, barn door handles, tool sheds, anything they felt a need to prevent theft or tampering. Just like an electric fence.

[Wayne Sheldon]

By the way, one would only get a shock when touching both the car and the ground. Usually when getting on or off. I used to work a lot with power systems as part of my communications systems work. Accidental electrocution could happen, and we were expected to know how to avoid it! If by chance you are ever in a car that has been hit by downed electrical wires? If practical, stay in the car and away from outside, wait for help to kill the power and ground the car before exiting.
If you cannot wait in the car, such as in the case of a fire, or you are alone and cannot wait for help to arrive? Carefully open the car door, move to the opening, then jump as far and as wide as you can, and roll on the ground when you land to more safely discharge any residual charge that your body might have accumulated (like a capacitor).
The most important thing is to DO NOT touch both any part of the car and the ground at any given moment in time.

[tmodeldriver]

I learned about this from my dad many years ago. In '62 I had a brand new Ford Fairlane 500. Our neighbor's dog would come over every day and pee on one or two of my hubcaps. Up near the radiator was a clear path to the ground underneath where we stuck a section of 1/4" copper tubing three or four inches deep. The upper end of the tubing was near the front of the engine but touching no part of the car. Removed the wire from a nearby sparkplug and placed it on the end of the tubing. With the engine running you would get a shock by touching any part of the car. Placed an old tire on the ground near the driver's door to stand on as I exited the car. Practiced this a few times to get the tire in the right place. Started the engine, climbed out onto the old tire, went in the house and waited.

In about fifteen minutes Rover showed up. We were afraid that the engine running would scare him off but not that boy. He let fly on the right rear hubcap, let out a shriek, fell to the ground, jumped up and ran home screaming as if the end of the world was after him. The neighbor came out to see what was up. When Dad told him what we did he had a good laugh along with us.

Turned out, Rover was a quick study because as far as I know he never peed on my hubcap again.

[colonelpowers]

I love the dog story and I am happy to know that old Ralph wasn't just telling me a tall tale. I have thought about that many times through the years and always retold it as a fact but never was absolutely certain of it. I am reminded of another dear but departed friend, Mack Sturgill. He was a published historian but would never claim that title. He preferred to be called an historical gossip. He said the stories are often better than the facts and if the two conflicted, tell the story instead (I paraphrase but that is the gist of it). I recall a similar line in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.