home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Path: sparky!uunet!decwrl!public!thad
- From: thad@public.BTR.COM (Thaddeus P. Floryan)
- Newsgroups: sci.electronics
- Subject: Re: SHOCKING STORIES
- Message-ID: <7502@public.BTR.COM>
- Date: 22 Jul 92 09:04:26 GMT
- References: <1992Jul18.175339.10396@newstand.syr.edu> <1992Jul20.022156.17731@megadata.mega.oz.au> <1992Jul21.005244.27329@nuchat.sccsi.com>
- Organization: BTR Public Access UNIX, Mountain View CA
- Lines: 34
-
- In article <1992Jul21.005244.27329@nuchat.sccsi.com> steve@nuchat.sccsi.com (Steve Nuchia) writes:
- >[...]
- >At age three I discovered that I could make the christmas tree
- >lights blink by playing with the plug. It was great fun until
- >I got my finger across the contacts. Three flips on the way
- >out from behind the tree, if I counted properly :-)
-
- That story reminded me of what happened to me about five years of age,
- and should be a lesson for manufacturers of plugs.
-
- I had needed to move a desk lamp from my Dad's desk to my room, so I
- thought I'd simply unplug it, move it, and plug it in at the new location.
-
- Simple, no?
-
- Stupid plug was tapered THE WRONG WAY. Thick part was at the wall, thin
- end met the cord. My tiny hands couldn't exert enough force to extricate
- the plug, so I just pulled the cord ... right out of the plug.
-
- So far so good. But the damned plug was still in the socket on the wall.
-
- "Aha," thought I, I'll just use my Dad's pipe reamer as a pry (since the
- reamer was atop his desk).
-
- Back-and-forth, back-and-forth, back-and-forth, plug was starting to loosen
- its death grip on the socket. Faster, faster, faster ... then I slipped and
- fell forward (fortunately losing my grip on the reamer) at the same instant
- the reamer contacted both prongs of the plug: *P*O*P* pht flit phtt phtt
- sizzle. Wow! The most beautiful "spark" (more like miniature ball lightning)
- was slowly arcing its way through the air onto the rug where it burned a small
- hole. Needless to say, the reamer was melted. So was my behind after my Dad
- found out what happened! :-)
-
- Thad Floryan [ thad@btr.com (OR) {decwrl, mips, fernwood}!btr!thad ]
-