In a game of "can you top this"..... I worked at a small factory where they made condenser capacitors for cars. Worst job of my life. I welded a bracket to the can thousands of times/day. The actual capacitor was like a roll of toilet paper consisting of foil and plastic rolled together...... So I am working at my station near the back of the plant and the whole building kind of shakes, there is a power interruption and I see a blue flash out the back door and I hear some laughing ... Beavis and Butthead laughing. I didn't think about it too much but a couple minutes later the same thing happens again. It turns out that Beavis and Butthead were taking these capacitors and throwing them over the power lines like you would toilet paper over a tree. Can you top this????
Can You Top This
Started by ●February 13, 2012
Reply by ●February 13, 20122012-02-13
On Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:20:37 -0800 (PST), brent <bulegoge@columbus.rr.com> wrote:>In a game of "can you top this"..... > >I worked at a small factory where they made condenser capacitors for >cars. Worst job of my life. I welded a bracket to the can thousands >of times/day. The actual capacitor was like a roll of toilet paper >consisting of foil and plastic rolled together...... > > >So I am working at my station near the back of the plant and the whole >building kind of shakes, there is a power interruption and I see a >blue flash out the back door and I hear some laughing ... Beavis and >Butthead laughing. I didn't think about it too much but a couple >minutes later the same thing happens again. > >It turns out that Beavis and Butthead were taking these capacitors and >throwing them over the power lines like you would toilet paper over a >tree. > > >Can you top this????I have a friend who, as a kid, took out power to the city of Arabi, Louisiana, by throwing a piece of wire over a power line. Didn't we do this with carbon fibers at the start of the Iraq war? -- John Larkin, President Highland Technology, Inc jlarkin at highlandtechnology dot com http://www.highlandtechnology.com Precision electronic instrumentation Picosecond-resolution Digital Delay and Pulse generators Custom laser controllers Photonics and fiberoptic TTL data links VME thermocouple, LVDT, synchro acquisition and simulation
Reply by ●February 13, 20122012-02-13
On Feb 13, 6:20=A0pm, brent <buleg...@columbus.rr.com> wrote:> In a game of "can you top this"..... > > I worked at a small factory where they made condenser capacitors for > cars. =A0Worst job of my life. =A0I welded a bracket to the can thousands > of times/day. =A0The actual capacitor was like a roll of toilet paper > consisting of foil and plastic rolled together...... > > So I am working at my station near the back of the plant and the whole > building kind of shakes, there is a power interruption and I see a > blue flash out the =A0back door and I hear some laughing ... Beavis and > Butthead laughing. =A0I didn't think about it too much but a couple > minutes later the same thing happens again. > > It turns out that Beavis and Butthead were taking these capacitors and > throwing them over the power lines like you would toilet paper over a > tree. > > Can you top this????Can't top it but we used to throw coins at 11kV overhead power lines when we were kids or put them on railway lines and try to find them once they had been flattened and thrown out at high speed. Kids don't always grow up.
Reply by ●February 13, 20122012-02-13
On 2/13/2012 1:20 PM, brent wrote:> In a game of "can you top this"..... > > I worked at a small factory where they made condenser capacitors for > cars. Worst job of my life. I welded a bracket to the can thousands > of times/day. The actual capacitor was like a roll of toilet paper > consisting of foil and plastic rolled together...... > > > So I am working at my station near the back of the plant and the whole > building kind of shakes, there is a power interruption and I see a > blue flash out the back door and I hear some laughing ... Beavis and > Butthead laughing. I didn't think about it too much but a couple > minutes later the same thing happens again. > > It turns out that Beavis and Butthead were taking these capacitors and > throwing them over the power lines like you would toilet paper over a > tree. > > > Can you top this????A still-fugitive miscreant threw a 5-foot crow bar onto electrified tracks where, I presume, it was intended to derail a train. Instead, it shorted the third rail to one of the other two and tripped the breaker, thereby converting disaster to inconvenience. The outage was a long one. Pieces of rail had to be replaced. The crowbar had been welded. Jerry -- Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get. �����������������������������������������������������������������������
Reply by ●February 13, 20122012-02-13
In comp.dsp brent <bulegoge@columbus.rr.com> wrote:> In a game of "can you top this".....> I worked at a small factory where they made condenser capacitors for > cars. Worst job of my life. I welded a bracket to the can thousands > of times/day. The actual capacitor was like a roll of toilet paper > consisting of foil and plastic rolled together......I remember those capacitors, and even the welded on part, working on my father's cars. By the time I got my own car, though, no more ignition points and capacitors to replace. (Yes they always called them condensers, the name that they had since the Leyden jar days.) Now it is rare to even find a distributor, instead one ignition coil per spark plug (or pair). The computer generates the pulses at the right time, so no mechanical or vacuum advance to adjust the timing. -- glen
Reply by ●February 13, 20122012-02-13
On 2/13/2012 3:23 PM, glen herrmannsfeldt wrote:> In comp.dsp brent<bulegoge@columbus.rr.com> wrote: >> In a game of "can you top this"..... > >> I worked at a small factory where they made condenser capacitors for >> cars. Worst job of my life. I welded a bracket to the can thousands >> of times/day. The actual capacitor was like a roll of toilet paper >> consisting of foil and plastic rolled together...... > > I remember those capacitors, and even the welded on part, > working on my father's cars. > > By the time I got my own car, though, no more ignition points > and capacitors to replace. (Yes they always called them condensers, > the name that they had since the Leyden jar days.) > > Now it is rare to even find a distributor, instead one ignition > coil per spark plug (or pair). The computer generates the pulses > at the right time, so no mechanical or vacuum advance to adjust > the timing.Those condensers were pretty reliable, but subject to early failure. After two such failures, I stopped changing them when I changed the points. I kept the replacement in the glove box in case of need, but it never arose. When I had a condenser failure in an outboard in Long Island Sound, I ended up making a replacement from the paper liners of two packs of cigarettes and some wire. It worked well enough to get us to shore. Jerry -- Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get. �����������������������������������������������������������������������
Reply by ●February 14, 20122012-02-14
On 2/13/12 1:20 PM, brent wrote:> In a game of "can you top this"..... > >...> > It turns out that Beavis and Butthead were taking these capacitors and > throwing them over the power lines like you would toilet paper over a > tree. > > > Can you top this????well, this guy used his body instead of capacitor foil: http://www.tb3.com/tesla/sparky.htm the website says he survived. -- r b-j rbj@audioimagination.com "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
Reply by ●February 14, 20122012-02-14
I've witnessed at first hand the attempt to fix live electrics with a leatherman tool (we've got 230 V over here). And "at first hand", take that literally... guess we all have our occasional blond moments ...
Reply by ●February 14, 20122012-02-14
"davew" <david.wooff@gmail.com> wrote in message news:1e5c73f3-fa3a-4543-a2af-73c643f1c562@f5g2000yqm.googlegroups.com... On Feb 13, 6:20 pm, brent <buleg...@columbus.rr.com> wrote:> In a game of "can you top this"..... > > I worked at a small factory where they made condenser capacitors for > cars. Worst job of my life. I welded a bracket to the can thousands > of times/day. The actual capacitor was like a roll of toilet paper > consisting of foil and plastic rolled together...... > > So I am working at my station near the back of the plant and the whole > building kind of shakes, there is a power interruption and I see a > blue flash out the back door and I hear some laughing ... Beavis and > Butthead laughing. I didn't think about it too much but a couple > minutes later the same thing happens again. > > It turns out that Beavis and Butthead were taking these capacitors and > throwing them over the power lines like you would toilet paper over a > tree. > > Can you top this????Can't top it but we used to throw coins at 11kV overhead power lines when we were kids or put them on railway lines and try to find them once they had been flattened and thrown out at high speed. Kids don't always grow up. ==================================================================== "throwing coins at 11kV overhead lines" - what did that do?
Reply by ●February 14, 20122012-02-14
"brent" <bulegoge@columbus.rr.com> wrote in message news:d4bdd586-6db0-4a87-ad46-0644a489308b@c21g2000yqi.googlegroups.com...> In a game of "can you top this"..... > > I worked at a small factory where they made condenser capacitors for > cars. Worst job of my life. I welded a bracket to the can thousands > of times/day. The actual capacitor was like a roll of toilet paper > consisting of foil and plastic rolled together...... > > > So I am working at my station near the back of the plant and the whole > building kind of shakes, there is a power interruption and I see a > blue flash out the back door and I hear some laughing ... Beavis and > Butthead laughing. I didn't think about it too much but a couple > minutes later the same thing happens again. > > It turns out that Beavis and Butthead were taking these capacitors and > throwing them over the power lines like you would toilet paper over a > tree. > > > Can you top this????In junior high I/we used to stick the leads of an electrolytic into a power outlet then standing back to the wall switch on the power with the heel of our shoes. Nice bang & smoke.....
