"Rod" wrote in message
...
ARWadsworth wrote:
Sod Teddy Bears. This article reminded me of my first childhood DIY
experiments

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8154757.stm


I had several DIY childhood experiences and the bigger the good hiding
from my parents the more damage I must have caused.

The most memorable experiment was when my brother and I found our Dad's
hammer on the landing and we smashed the bathroom sink into bits to see
how long it would take to smash the sink into bits.

So what DIY experiments did you perform as a child? I know that one
regular poster deliberately electrocuted his sister.

Adam


Spent quite a while playing with a blowtorch and lead piping (from an old
toilet). Much fun but have always wondered if I absorbed rather a lot of
lead.

Played with a doorbell, model railway transformer and various other bits -
gave quite a powerful pulse-like shock as you twanged the hammer spring.

Melted iron in the fireplace - coal plus a cylinder vacuum cleaner. Very
impressive. Especially the burns on the carpet from the sparks. The iron
did melt and filled a hole in the bottom of the fireplace.

Tried to move soil by pointing a hosepipe at it and letting the water jet
do the job. Yes - it moved the soil. But after doing that for a couple of
hours, it set like concrete when the sun baked it over the next weeks.

Replaced a fuse (this was at my boarding school) - firstly with a couple
of strands of fuse wire. Later with around a dozen - probably effectively
60 amps. Still managed to blow it by putting magnesium ribbon across
sockets and switching on.


I posted this anecdote that my sister told me about (the one
I nearly electrocuted) a couple of years ago.
I will just cut & paste:

My sister used to teach in a private girls' school in London.
The story goes that there was some renovation being done
to one of the classrooms and a small sealed-off room was
found that no-one could remember. It had obviously been
a store room for a lab and among the things found there
was a kilogramme or so of a soft metallic substance not quite
covered in oil. Fortunately someone there realised how dangerous
the find was, and it was dealt with accordingly.

Can you tell what it is yet?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_oWCU2FXf2w

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%