On Tue, 27 Aug 2002, Olin Lathrop wrote:

>> I'll see your fluro starter and raise  you a line of metal can transistors
>> in the lab power sockets and then turn the mains on.
>
>When I was a kid I wanted to see what would happen if you plugged in one of
>those little neon lights *without* that silly series resistor.

Hehe. That I did too, by mistake. I dropped a sofite neon bulb and it fell
into a schuko receptacle on a power strip. Then I tried to pry it out
using the screwdriver I was using (the other hand was holding something).
The driver slipped into the phase hole and at the same time touched the
lamp which was resting against one of the ground springs. No GFI = big
bright flash and metallized glass flying everywhere. I was blind for a few
minutes after that.

Peter

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