>They also make a spectacular orange burst of flame about a meter long
>when plugged into the 110V power line.

How do you know that ? ;-). At 220V they make a green-orange burst and
lots of stinking smoke (probably green from copper and chlorine vented by
burning PVC). This can hit you in the face if the unit is being held while
trialwise plugging wires in a box ...

Peter

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different
ways.  See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.