At 11:54 AM 5/16/2005, John Ferrell wrote:
>I have not been inside a TV for many years but back when that was my 
>bread & butter, I simply discharged it with a clip lead. Of course, 
>you need to ground the lead first! And I clip the business end to a 
>small insulated screwdriver.

I wasn't so trusting.. :)

>BTW, the CRT construction is about the best Leyden Jar you might 
>envision. I have seen many CRT's that were stored accumulate enough 
>of a charge to draw an arc. Discharge it EVERY time you might come 
>in contact with it.

There is a phenomenon called "soak" where a cap can be shorted, and 
after the short is removed, it recharges to some level.
I've seen this in CRTs, where I definitely shorted them out, and 
later, without being powered, they were able to spark again.

I've never seen or heard anyone killed by them, but I have seen a few 
injuries caused when muscle contractions draw your hand back 
forcefully, removing it from the cage of razor-sharp stamped metal at 
high speed..

Still, I treat anything like this as if it is lethal, and so far, I'm 
still around to tell cautionary tales.

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