A repost for Fred, K6DGW.
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The definition of a "dumb thing" often changes over time. In Jr High
electric shop in '53, we were given our choice of two projects: An
electric motor that would run on a car battery, or a hot dog cooker. The
hot dog cooker consisted of a wooden base through which two long nails
had been driven, about 2/3 of a hot dog length apart. A lamp cord was
soldered to the heads of the nails. To cook a hot dog, you performed
the following steps (in the order shown, please):
1. Remove hot dog from package and push it onto the nails
2. Insert plug on the end of the lamp cord into a wall socket
3. Watch hot dog cook
4. Remove plug from wall socket
5. Remove hot dog
I chose to build the motor ... not because I thought the hot dog cooker
was absurdly dangerous (although I had just been licensed as KN6DGW so I
was on a first name basis with a few electrons, but dangerous never
occurred to me -- after all, the teacher gave us the projects, no?), but
because while harder, the motor looked like more fun ... stuff moved.
I would surmise that, given the general trend in product liability over
the intervening years, the hot dog cooker is no longer a project choice
in schools.
Fred K6DGW
Auburn CA CM98lw
"The problem with 'Lessons Learned' is that so few ever really are."
Leo Endres
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