Hello, all.

I have an unusual question for you, perhaps you can help me. It's about
a very clear and, to me, very puzzling childhood memory, related to a
television set.

When I was a child, my parents had a black and white TV as the
centerpiece of the living room. This must have been in the mid-to-late
1960's. It was in the U.S.A.

Eventually, the TV went on the blink and couldn't be repaired, so my
parents bought a new one and relegated the old one to the basement
playroom, where my brothers and I would spend our free hours. My dad,
though not an electrician, was fairly handy, so I suppose he wanted to
hold onto the old TV for a while in case it could be cannibalized for
parts. It was clear, though, that it was considered "junk", never to be
repaired and eventually to be discarded, so it was OK for us to mess
around with it.

In the course of exploring the insides of the set, I came across a part
that generated heat - it was warm to the touch. I don't remember its
exact appearance, but it was about the size of a man's fist. I seem to
remember it had a rectangular frame and what ever was in the middle of
the frame protruded on both sides. The whole thing was covered, maybe
with tape or some other sort of silvery-grey insulation, I don't
remember. Looking back, it may have had the general shape of a small
transformer.

But the puzzling thing for me is that it generated heat, for weeks and
months after the set was disconnected from the power mains. It gave my
hands a tingly feeling, but it did not cause any shock or static
electricity. It mystified me. It suggested radioactivity to me, but
even as a child I knew that radioactive materials in such quantity
would not be part of a TV set. Still, I made sure not to mess with it
for extended periods of time. I dismounted the part from the TV
chassis, and the effect continued.

I don't remember what happened to that part; I may have just lost
interest and discarded it eventually.

Does anyone have any idea what could have been that heat-generating
part, something that was warm to the touch for weeks after the TV was
disconnected from the mains. I suppose it could have been a large
capacitor or battery of some sort, but I'd prefer to hear from the
experts. I suppose it's true, too, that because this happened so long
ago my memory of it could be distorted and inaccurate, but the basic
facts I've related here are pretty clear in my mind.

Thanks.