Never ceases to amaze

[Farside]

Voltage differences,

Many years ago I built a fairly decent PC for a relllie.
Her useless other half phoned up to tell me it wasn't working, eventually he admitted to switching the voltage selector to 110V.
"Why did you do that?"
" I thought it would run faster."

 

[dave h 2]

You really should bodge things professionally
This was Iraq don't know when.

 

[chunkolini]

Some playing with electricity posts earlier.
I was The Chief Idiot as a kid and good at it
Yes well we survived.
Dead slow old Scalextric probably worth a fortune now.
I know says Chunko lets leave out the transformer thingy. BANG! go the cars. Ooohhh!!!
Hmm a single fairy light bulb? Bang, early calculator? Bang! we had a dedicated blowing up box for this harmless stuff and were good at resetting the fuses.
Big Sisters Goldfish? hmmm got the wires out ran them to the bowl getting ready to trip the switch and the Old Boy stood in the door way coughed and strolled off. He'd watched us setting up the experiment.
Never said a thing The Old Fool.
What would have happened?

 

[dobbslc]

Dead fish, dead Chunko maybe

 

[Onoff]

Dad taught me how to change a 13A plug from an early age with nothing but a pointy table knife. You just swapped plugs between appliances. Stripping the flex was done with your teeth and sod the enamel.

I bought my first soldering iron, aged about 10, not an Antex but an S R Brewster from memory, from Stephenson's electronics in Bromley. I acquired a plug but not the screw to hold the two halves together. No problem, that's what elastic bands were for.

All was well until I went to unplug it and the elastic band snapped...in went my little fingers...

This was M&Ds fuse board just as I was replacing the rewireable fuses years later with MCBs and before I'd connected the incoming TN-S earth which was just sitting there doing nothing. I think I measured the fault current at 7A. The only concession to an earth beforehand was a rod buried under the concrete drive, covered by a carport, connected to the incoming iron water main.

I got my belt, aged 10 and the shock luckily threw me across the room where I hit the opposite wall.

Dad wouldn't entertain a new board & rewire up until the day he died.

Ah memories!

 

[bricol]

I like how just plugging a lap top power supply in in the US usually causes a spark to jump from socket to plug . . .and having to tie extension leads in knots to stop them unplugging themselves as they trailed across the work site . . .

But it was when I saw wire nuts on general sale in Lowes, Home Depot etc . . .

 

[sparkysy]

It was watching my uncle as a kid get an electric shock that got both myself and my brother into electrics in the first place.
We thought the power of it was amazing and wanted him to do it again!
Would have been nasty though at that time, early 80's rewirable fuses the same as would have been in @Onoff s board above!
Still amazed by it now after nearly 30 years in the game!!

 

[Onoff]

It was watching my uncle as a kid get an electric shock that got both myself and my brother into electrics in the first place.
We thought the power of it was amazing and wanted him to do it again!
Would have been nasty though at that time, early 80's rewirable fuses the same as would have been in @Onoff s board above!
Still amazed by it now after nearly 30 years in the game!!

That board was put in in 1960.

 

[Onoff]

Got my new board to put in sometime:

 

[sparkysy]

That board was put in in 1960.

As was probably the one at the house we were at!
I remember my Nan plugging in an iron to the kitchen light pendant with a two way bayonet converter, this had twisted pair flex as did the pendants throughout the house!
Most probably rubber insulated cables and no earth's in the lighting circuit.
One single socket in most rooms but not all!

Amazing how much power is needed these days!!

 

[Tinbasherdan]

I don’t touch electrics is I can help it as I’ve discovered that if I can be shocked, I will be. It got to the point where my old boss would get up and watch from the office anytime I was fitting or testing a merlin or meteor magneto as I would inevitably get 50k bolts up my arm and squeal like a pig and he laughed himself senseless. Got a proper belt from a faulty mig a few years ago, arm was numb for hours. That one hurt

 

[500e]

That’s right - we’re dealing with AC, which doesn’t have a polarity. The L/N thing is a safety system we impose on it.

I have a Bush DAC90 valve radio which could originally be plugged in either way - one way would make the chassis live at 240V. It’s designed so you’d need something metal and poky to actually get a shock. I assume 1950’s children were more disciplined!

That would have a line cord (resistance wire as one leg of mains cable) .
Quite a few radios like that when I was an apprentice.

 

[Red'n'Black]

Many years ago I built a fairly decent PC for a relllie.
Her useless other half phoned up to tell me it wasn't working, eventually he admitted to switching the voltage selector to 110V.
"Why did you do that?"
" I thought it would run faster."

I made a fair bit of pocket money at school, fixing other kids' stereos after they'd tried the same thing "to see what happened".

 

[mark roberts]

As a teen I was thrilled to get a tv in my room, it was the old brown thing that weighed at least a couple of sacks of tatty's. It stopped working properly so I think I'm the TV repair man and open up the back while its on. Poking around with a screwdriver and it stuck to something and I felt my arm throb. Obviously the experience of wires in the socket taught me nothing.

 

[redlig]

I remember before changing a light switch for an old lady when I worked for a charity placing the probes of my multimeter about a foot apart on her greasy /filthy wall and getting a reading . No wires involved.

 

[Guineafowl]

That would have a line cord (resistance wire as one leg of mains cable) .
Quite a few radios like that when I was an apprentice.

Not on this model, apparently, but I have heard of those. The DAC90 has a big dropper resistor with multiple taps.

I replaced the old ‘polarity roulette’ fitting with a permanent flex - brown, twisted reproduction cloth cord which looks really nice:

Unfortunately, the modern world is so noisy in RF terms it’s hard to get a clean reception.