Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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"Electricity bad!" baby training outlet plate

Electric outlet plates give very mild electric shock if touched
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Hold your bone for one second. As horrible as it sounds to shock a baby, I'd rather do it with 5 mA DC to discourage further exploration than to have them get hit with 110 volts @ 15 amps. This wouldn't be used instead of childproof (no such thing) wall plugs but in addition to.

Ok, let the bones fly now.

doctorremulac3, May 10 2012

Public Information Film - Don't play on farms! http://www.google.c...W3yDrIBbk2wBJ4tTpuA
[zen_tom, May 10 2012]

Public Information Film - Frisbee! http://www.google.c...bWSfoMsyZFmTaANg6ow
[zen_tom, May 10 2012]

Public Information Film - Mantrap! http://www.google.c...5JWqXyk_xUNvBoNRV1Q
"Polish a floor, put a rug on it, and you might as well set a man trap." [zen_tom, May 10 2012]

My Mom and her siblings were trained with this device http://www.youtube....watch?v=mJfo6XzbTQ8
(it's true, this is how they learned about electricity and their father's authority in the 50s) [DIYMatt, May 10 2012]

[link]






       I remember being told not to put my finger in a wall socket when I was four or five, because bad things would happen and I could die.   

       Curiosity finally made me do it - but my finger wouldn't fit. I finally managed to get a fingernail in far enough that something happened and my fingertip hurt terribly.   

       I didn't tell anyone, and waited for my untimely early death. When an hour had passed I asked my father what would happen if I put my fingernail in there and received a similar warning. I knew then that adults were not to be relied upon.
normzone, May 10 2012
  

       My nephew, at about age 2, worked out that if you pulled a 240V/10Amp plug out slightly and dropped a coin down behind it that there was a flash and a bang and the lights went out, leaving the coin sliced into several pieces. He did it several times before he got the message from his parents that it was not a good thing to be doing.   

       He enrolled in an Engineering degree course at the beginning of the year, aged 18.   

       Mind you, this is the same child who worked out how to open the clothes dryer and crawl inside it, before he was 12 months old.
UnaBubba, May 10 2012
  

       From a technical perspective, the problem is that there's no way to guarantee that you won't somehow end up with the mains current shorted to the wall plate in the event of component failure or adverse environmental conditions. If the neutral and ground wires were disconnected, for example, it's possible that the least resistive path to ground for the house current could be over a bit of condensation on the circuit and right through your body. Electrical fires have certainly started under more unusual circumstances.   

       The only safe way to generate an actual electrical shock would be to have the input electrically isolated from the output, but I doubt an optoisolator would generate enough current to shock, and something like a Van de Graaf generator would be fairly impractical (but very cool, if you could). A safer way to do it would be to have a loud alarm that's triggered by a capacitive sensor, which could be placed behind an insulator.
ytk, May 10 2012
  

       Or a small capacitor, to deliver a short, harmless jolt.
UnaBubba, May 10 2012
  

       Maybe, if you charged the capacitor with an optoisolator, and made sure that the entire "punishment" circuit was electrically isolated from the mains power circuit. Still, I sort of doubt that an outlet that /deliberately/ leaks current to an ungrounded path would be up to code.   

       You might do better to have this built into a multi- tap adaptor that hugs the wall plate, rather than the wall plate itself. I don't think I'd feel too comfortable about putting one in my house, though...
ytk, May 10 2012
  

       I'm not sure this is wise. I have quite good immunity to infections, high voltages and radiation, and I attribute all this to my exposures at an early age.
MaxwellBuchanan, May 10 2012
  

       5 mA DC seems a little tame.   

       It needs to be a decent jolt to be effective...   

       [+]
8th of 7, May 10 2012
  

       //I attribute all this to my exposures at an early age.//

There are some good arguments in favour of public nudity but I think you are stretching credulity beyond its design tolerance, Max, if you think it helps develop immunity to infections, high voltages and radiation.
DrBob, May 10 2012
  

       What you need is a series of publically funded films expounding the dangers of (for example) throwing your frisbee into an electricity sub-station, playing on the farm, or placing rugs on polished floors. I had nightmares for years about these things, but never once have been fatally electrocuted, drowned in sewerage, or slipped on a "mantrap" positioned rug.
zen_tom, May 10 2012
  

       I'd like to see a rebuttal to these scare films.   

       "Little Johnny follows all the rules. He never takes chances, always does what he's told and plays it safe. Only one problem. Little Johnny is going to grow up to be... (cue minor chord orchestral sting) a little pussy. Yes, being a pussy is no treat. Go for that new career? "Too dangerous." Create something new and bring it to the market place? "Somebody might get hurt!" How about just asking that nice looking girl out on a date? "No chance, rejection is a real possibility."   

       So go pull that Frisbee out of that electric power line, jump into that mud puddle of death and remember, streets are fun to play in and cars have brakes. So have fun, take some chances and ... don't be such a pussy." (Fade in warbling badly recorded happy message public domain soundtrack music)
doctorremulac3, May 10 2012
  

       ^ Do what Donny Don't didn't. Sheer genius.
spidermother, May 10 2012
  

       If the plate was made from plastic infused with a mesh of 0.1 amp fuse wire, even if there was a short circuit, it would just burn out the fuse wire.   

       Alternatively, and doubling as a prank socket, you could attach a piezo device to the switch (like in a cigarette lighter) which gives you a shock when you flip the switch.
marklar, May 10 2012
  

       It's like a new Sparta - rather than abandoning your children in the wild and bring up the ones that don't fall prey to savage beasts, simply leave your children to roam around industrial/building sites and workshops and keep the ones who retain most of their limbs.
zen_tom, May 10 2012
  

       May as well get them doing productive work in those places rather than just letting them roam.
pocmloc, May 10 2012
  

       //If the plate was made from plastic infused with a mesh of 0.1 amp fuse wire, even if there was a short circuit, it would just burn out the fuse wire.//   

       It would have to be much less than that. One tenth of an amp across your heart can be fatal.
ytk, May 10 2012
  

       Given that skin-to-skin resistance is o.t.o.o. 100kOhms, and that mains voltage (240AC; say 350 peak) is on the borderline of being dangerous, that equates to 30mA.
MaxwellBuchanan, May 10 2012
  

       // One tenth of an amp across your heart can be fatal //   

       Do you have any comparable figures for, just as an example, felix domesticus ?   

       <gleeful chuckling>   

       Small children, electric shocks ... what's not to like ... ?   

       // leave your children to roam around industrial/building sites and workshops and keep the ones who retain most of their limbs. //   

       "partially derelict" // industrial/building sites and workshops // would work MUCH better.   

       <even more gleeful chuckling>
8th of 7, May 10 2012
  

       I put keys and paperclips in sockets 5 times as a child its really a miracle I lived.
bob, May 11 2012
  

       I too had early childhood adventures with electricity, and seem to have suffered no ill effect no ill effect ill effect.   

       Sorry, just a little brain twitch. Happens sometimes. No idea why.
Alterother, May 11 2012
  

       //        Do you have any comparable figures for, just as an example, felix domesticus ?    //   

       Actually, cats can endure far more physical punishment, pound for pound, than humans can. This includes electrocution; I put in a quick call to my Dad, who says that a cat could theoretically survive three to five amps applied directly across the heart.   

       He told me about a cat that was brought to him stone cold dead after jumping onto a car battery and bridging the terminals. After confirming that there was no heartbeat and respiration, he was leaving the room to console the owners when it picked up its head and started to howl.
Alterother, May 11 2012
  

       // leave your children to roam around industrial/building sites and workshops and keep the ones who retain most of their limbs. //   

       //"partially derelict" // industrial/building sites and workshops // would work MUCH better.//   

       Mom?
Is that you?
  

       Henry VIII only had 6 wives. Imagine if he'd been a really cool cat.
UnaBubba, May 12 2012
  

       //I put in a quick call to my Dad, who says that a cat could theoretically survive three to five amps applied directly across the heart.//   

       That is quite terrifically unlikely. Cat heart muscle is pretty much the same as human heart muscle, and would be fried by even an amp applied for more than an instant. If the cat bridged a 12V battery with fur-covered skin, it would probably feel nothing (skin is a pretty good insulator, and furry skin even more so).   

       If the cat managed to injure itself and get exposed flesh (or a tongue) on each terminal, it would get enough of a jolt to make it move pretty fast, but not much more.
MaxwellBuchanan, May 12 2012
  

       This was many years ago, and I didn't get the full story (he was busy). Could be it gapped the alternator or something. It's all anecdotal anyway, but the real point is that housecats will frequently and inexplicably survive things that will kill a human.   

       <re-reads orig. anno>   

       Oops. The figures my Dad gave were actually "three to five tenths of an amp." Something was lost in translation between my brain and my fingers.
Alterother, May 12 2012
  

       // its a miracle I lived //   

       A miracle for you, a tragedy for everyone else …   

       // Mom? Is that you? //   

       Awshit …   

       // exposed flesh (or a tongue) on each terminal it would get enough of a jolt to make it move pretty fast, but not much more //   

       <puts down car battery and jump leads>   

       12.6 km/h from a standing start, based on an unrepresentative sample of one cat (who is new to the neighbourhood, and therefore did not know to flee immediately when we approached it with a plate of food and a net)
8th of 7, May 12 2012
  

       //Henry VII only had 6 wives.//   

       I think you have your Henries mixed up, and anyway, capacitance is measured in Farads, not Henries.
ytk, May 12 2012
  

       However, Edward VII had many wives, all but one of them belonging to other people…
8th of 7, May 12 2012
  

       The nine wives of our fewine fweind, Henwy the 8th of 7.
UnaBubba, May 13 2012
  

       can a 12V battery really electrocute a cat? I've bridged battery terminals with a sweaty arm more than once, I'd describe it as a "nasty tingle". It's hard to see how a cat's foot could be more conductive, and the path: up one leg... along body... down another it longer than my arm.
bs0u0155, Jan 08 2014
  

       //can a 12V battery really electrocute a cat?//   

       A lot depends on how good you make the connections.
MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 08 2014
  

       I wondered who was my only customer for mouse- flavoured super-sharp battery terminals.
bs0u0155, Jan 08 2014
  

       Have you never heard of "client confidentiality" ?   

       By the way, the sample palladium-plated ones show a significant performance improvement. For the same power input, the cats are going an average of 7% faster and 11% further.
8th of 7, Jan 08 2014
  

       //Have you never heard of "client confidentiality" ? //   

       heard of and commoditized, confidentiality is a cost- option.
bs0u0155, Jan 08 2014
  

       Damn you and your small print … we'd have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you pesky kids.
8th of 7, Jan 08 2014
  

       Bronze confidentiality: we won't actively blackmail you Silver: we will hide your details in a locked filing cabinet Gold: we will hide your details in the wrong place in a locked filing cabinet Platinum: we will actively say it was someone else. Super Premium Platinum: we will blackmail someone else, send you a cut of the proceeds and a complete list of bronze,silver and gold members. The list could include Platinum members but it's hard to know.
bs0u0155, Jan 08 2014
  

       //Electric outlet plates give very mild electric shock if touched//   

       "No, really, it just gives you a tingle - I remember doing it when I was like two or three. Here, take this paperclip."
MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 13 2014
  

       The downside to this is that moms might be a little reticent to buy something that gives their baby an electrical shock, no matter how mild.   

       How about just an alarm? That would not only scare the hell out of them, it would alert the parent that the little tyke is trying to play shake-hands-with- Jesus via the electrical outlet.
doctorremulac3, Jan 14 2014
  
      
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