In alt.home.repair, on Wed, 26 Dec 2018 00:07:08 -0500, micky
wrote:


I don't know if fans and radio like that were for sale or not, but one
could rewire what he had. For example, I have an Emerson AM table radio
that has a chip out of the case so that the chassis of the radio can sit
on a metal table we had.

Maybe I should say that even on a metal table, there was no problem if
it was a table with no holes in it. We had a little decorative metal
end table that had a metal shelf in the middle, with little holes in it,
but the shelf itself didn't go to the edge of the table There was a 5/8
or 3/4" space before a straight wire and iirc another thicker wire a
quarter inch beyond that. The outermost wire ran from one leg to the
other. So one or two of the 3/8" legs of the radio could fall into that
empty space and the chassis would touch the table.

I probably could have fixed the problem by reversing the plug, but I
didnt think of that. I probably didn't understand practical aspects of
elecricity that well then.

My mother never even complained about the elecric shock, afaicr. If she
had, I might have thought about it more. No one was ever hurt. I
might still have the table but there is no radio on it. I do have the
radio but it's on a wood shelf and it's not plugged in. I could also
put some tape on the part of the chassis that touched the metal.


When it did that, if you touched the table and
the metal edge of the formica kitchen counter, one got a constant small
shock. It would have been easy enough to replace the cord and plug and
attach the new ground wire to the chassis.