RE: How did we survive these electrical experiments (WAS : Idea for Poll)

[Keith Doxey <keith.doxey@xxxxxxx>]

A favourite trick at college was to connect a large electrolytic capacitor
the wrong way round to the power supplies on the benches. Set the current
limit quite low so they took time to charge up. Halfway through the lecture
there would be an almighty bang and it would start to snow with little bits
of cotton wool type material.  Probably highly toxic.....but when I was at
Junior School I remember pushing beads of Mercury around the benches during
science lessons!!!

On a similar vein, I once "tried" to repair a timer circuit out
of an
electric hand drier. I found "most" of the faulty components and
replaced
them. The one I missed was a diode that had gone short circuit. I
reassembled the timer into its plastic case confident that it would work. I
turned it on and it did indeed operate but with a strange buzzing from the
relay. Just then, following a loud bang, the can of an electrolytic
capacitor shot THROUGH the plastic case and embedded itself in the kitchen
ceiling !

Little mishaps like that help to reinforce things like check, check and
check again :-)

Keith

-----Original Message-----
From:	REB.Barnett@xxxxxxx
[SMTP:REB.Barnett@xxxxxxx]
Sent:	26 September 2000 12:15
To:	ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject:	RE: [ukha_d] Idea for Poll

> twice about replacing that blown 3A fuse with either a 13A
> ('cos that's the
> only one you can find) or a bit of foil.

Ahh. The fun old days at school when we pinched strips of magnesium strip
from chemistry to fit between the live and neutral pins of a wall socket,
remotely operated by a length of cane...









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