During my carbon arc experiments, I used HB pencil leads. Sometimes they would explode and send pieces of red-hot carbon everywhere! Well, the 1st time  Afterwards I covered the arc with a scanner glass panel.

Not now, my account on YouTube (M400APowrDoor) got deleted for no reason  I wait to be able to create another one, then I should send it 

Yeah what the....I just took a look for your account and it says it's suspended 

probably what i did today... Broke a CFL playing with it tossing it a small way and playing with it, it slipped out of my hand and BOOM, broken CFL.

Wired up a HX 175w ballast improperly (had extra terminal for 140w and connected 120v to that) and sent mains into my Westy /C and destroyed it. 

Wired up a HX 175w ballast improperly (had extra terminal for 140w and connected 120v to that) and sent mains into my Westy /C and destroyed it. 

Thats why even if I am 100% sure if I wired things right,and afer triple checking it, I always use my cheap caster as the test rat.

Thats why even if I am 100% sure if I wired things right,and afer triple checking it, I always use my cheap caster as the test rat.



Yes, these days, I am much more careful. Never be in a hurry either!

Waaaay back in the mid 90s when I was a young boy, I knew nothing about how these new 'energy saver' bulbs worked, about the mercury in them or the fact that a certain bulb which was common at the time would one day become a rare item......

All I knew was that this strange bulb flashed when it was turned on, and made a buzzing noise. I was curious to find out what was inside it, so I thought 'let's open it and see!'

What happened next is so horrible I have hidden it - If you really want to find out what I did, highlight the space between the shocked faces below:


  HAMMER + PHILIPS 'SL*COMFORT 18' BULB = BIG SMASH, CLOUD OF DUST, BROKEN GLASS ALL OVER CARPET! 


Looking back now, 18 years later, I can't believe I did such a thing.

I had another one of these bulbs, but this one got smashed too - by accident this time, it was in a table lamp which I knocked over while playing hide-and-seek!

I had accidentally destroyed a few fluorescent lamps I wish I still had now.

Probably my single worst was several months ago when I got a new (used) mercury fixture in from eBay.  It came with a late 70s-early 80s Sylvania 150w Unalux lamp.  I took the lamp out as I was unpacking and set it on the table and went on unpacking, not thinking much of it until I heard the smash of the lamp hitting the floor and breaking. 

Though the outer is broken, I still have that lamp until I can find another one.

Put my brand new $50 1 KW MH lamp on a flimsy base and it fell over smashing it and almost cutting me.

A year or  two ago, I found half a dozen or so colored fluorescent lamps in the dumpster. They didn't work good. We hit rocks with it using the lamp as a bat (with safety gloves).

Then, we just left broken pieces everywhere 

A year or  two ago, I found half a dozen or so colored fluorescent lamps in the dumpster. They didn't work good. We hit rocks with it using the lamp as a bat (with safety gloves).

Then, we just left broken pieces everywhere 

I did that to road signs....riding down the road as a teenager, with the lamp hanging out the window of my truck, then "bat" the sign with the lamp. I wasted a lot of probably (by now anyway) collectible lamps, though most were 34 and 35 watt ones.

1. When I was 11 or 12 I wanted a lamp dimmer. My parent never got one so I tried to make one by putting a small potentiometer in a cardboard box. In series with it I placed a small (~1 W 14 V) incandescent bulb from christmas lights and connected the thing to 230 V AC. The pot was set to maximum resistance, so it did nothing at first, but I turned it down and the pot started burning inside and smoke a lot. I got scared and unplugged it immediately.

2. I didn't to this, but my brother. I had a battery powered F4T5 fixture. My brother and I was playing with it and he wanted to see if the inverter in it could power a mains incandescent lamp. So he connected 10 batteries in series instead of 3, which caused the poor little transistor in the inverter to explode.

Tried to connect a bad cap (which I thought was good) to a ballast...and I had wired the cap in parallel from the mains to the ballast.....

Next thing happened was all the lights in the room (and some parts of the house) was flashing wildly...and something was vibrating which I don't remember.....but the cap...was also swelling up and I could smell something from it! So quickly unplugged it...all stopped...ended up a swollen cap which I still have....

Tried to connect a bad cap (which I thought was good) to a ballast...and I had wired the cap in parallel from the mains to the ballast.....

Next thing happened was all the lights in the room (and some parts of the house) was flashing wildly...and something was vibrating which I don't remember.....but the cap...was also swelling up and I could smell something from it! So quickly unplugged it...all stopped...ended up a swollen cap which I still have....

Hey Jace you should post a picture of the cap 

I've also hooked a couple of 8W tubes directly up to 240V mains with nothing to limit the current. One tube just flashed before the cathode support wires melted, the other cracked.

I've put 110/120V bulbs in holders connected to 240V mains, some blew immediately and others had a life in the region of 5 - 15 minutes.