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I am thinking of editing this page to clarify. The problem is that there is not a great deal of factual information available - for the obvious reason that users of the devices didn't go into print and the victims don't know the technical details or don't want to write about them.
As I understand it, the picana is/was a high voltage / low current device which (like the cattle prod or the modern stun baton or Taser) has two electrodes, meaning that no ground wire was necessary.
This may seem merely a technical distinction, but the point of a high voltage device is to provide a shock over a short distance at very low current and so avoid the danger of running a current through the vital organs. The combination of a single electrode with a ground wire was a lower voltage device with a variable resistor (to allow adjustment from zero to mains 110/220 volts) - which caused a higher current.
This made the high voltage picana allegedly a 'safer' device that was believed to allow repeated debilitating shocks with less risk of death.
If the above is right (which I believe it is), the picana was more technically sophisticated, whereas the mains voltages devices were cruder.
See Electricty: the global history of a torture technolgy
Does anyone have any more knowledge about this? If not, I am inclined to edit to follow Darius Rejali rather than the present version of the article.
Charlotte274 19:02, 18 September 2006 (UTC)
- New link for Rejali paper: "Electricity: The Global History Of A Torture Technology" Jimw338 (talk) 17:24, 2 December 2017 (UTC)
Technical details correct?
editAs far as I know, the picana was not similar to a cattle prod or stun baton; it had two electrodes, one of them (the "hot wire" that was moved around) was shaped like a knitting needle (see: http://irct.net.dynamicweb.dk/Admin/Public/DWSDownload.aspx?File=Files%2FFiler%2FTortureJournal%2F16_2_2006%2F4_dermatological_findings.pdf for a description). Other sources claim that the picana was in fact a simple cattle prod, but I'm not aware of cattle prods with rheostats, and the pdf-file above comes from a reputable medical source. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.83.206.206 (talk) 11:29, 25 May 2010 (UTC)