Part 12 (2/2)
CHAPTER 4.
ELECTRICITY: COMMON GROUNDS.
”I know we shouldn't make fun of the misfortunes of others, but I couldn't help myself!”
-Fan mail
Electricity is often the shortest path to a ”vivid” demise. Spectacular failures result from the combination of wires, water, and human circuit breakers in a series of spectacular and galvanizing stories. Read onward for amusing and illuminating electrical emergencies.
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One Foot in the Pool * An Illuminating Story * Tiny Elec Fence * Electric Bathtub Blues * Tennessee Pee * Shocking Rappel * Shockingly Conductive * Christmas Light Zinger [image]
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Darwin Award Winner: One Foot in the Pool Confirmed by Darwin Featuring electricity and water!
24 AUGUST 2008, JAKARTA, INDONESIA
Charles had just completed his International Baccalaureate at King William's College in the Isle of Man. The princ.i.p.al of the college posthumously described him as ”a very bright boy with a very bright future.” He planned to retire by the age of thirty.
Unfortunately for Charles, his elite education omitted an important lesson from the curriculum: the danger of electricity.
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He had one foot in the backyard swimming pool when he noticed a cement box full of electrical wires near the edge of the pool. It was a junction box supplying power to the Jacuzzi. Curious, Charles started to fiddle with a fistful of colored wires and was immediately rooted to the spot by 240 volts of electrical energy surging through his body.
A bright future and early retirement were, indeed, in his cards.
Reference: iomtoday.co.im [image]
Reader Comment
”Charles was a real live wire!”
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Darwin Award Winner: An Illuminating Story Confirmed by Darwin Featuring electricity, weather, and a frugal old fart
26 FEBRUARY 2008, FRANCE
A seventy-one-year-old pensioner reached a shocking conclusion when his frugal attempt to illuminate his yard with power siphoned from the National Grid backfired spectacularly.
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The gentleman in question illegally opened a major power junction box at the front of his house, intending to hard-wire a cable to his garden shed. Unfortunately he attempted to do this rewiring during a major downpour. The result was all too predictable. The poor chap was immediately rooted to the spot, and declared DART (Darwin Award Right There) at the scene.
Lessons: 1. 1. Don't Don't wire your shed to a local power substation. wire your shed to a local power substation.2. Don't Don't wire your shed in the rain wire your shed in the rain. 3. And there is such a thing as being too frugal. 3. And there is such a thing as being too frugal.
Reference: Ouest-France, rennes.maville.com [image]
Darwin Award Winner: Zap Car10 Confirmed by Darwin Featuring electricity and vehicles
10 JANUARY 2010, BRAZIL
An electrical discharge made toast of munic.i.p.al guard Arthur C., forty-seven. According to police reports, he had installed a tiny electric fence around his car to protect against the frequent robberies that occur in his neighborhood in Belem in the state of Para. Better safe than sorry. Then one evening he forgot that he had left the current on. Let's just say his forgetfulness caused him quite a shock. Galvanic shock.
We are all dying, but some are more eager than others.
Reference: oglobo.globo.com Historic Darwin Award Winner: Electric Bathtub Blues Confirmed by Darwin Featuring electricity, water, and a lightbulb [image]
11 MARCH 1978, FRANCE
The singer Claude Francois, whose stellar career can be compared to that of legendary Elvis Presley, popularized rock'n'roll in France. One evening, he returned to his Paris apartment from a busy touring schedule and ran a quiet bath. While standing in the steaming water in the tub, he noticed some wires dangling from the ceiling light. These wires had been the subject of numerous complaints in his various correspondences! The naked singer reached out and grabbed hold of the naked wires . . . and was electrocuted then and there.
Au revoir, Claude.
Reference: Wikipedia and online French TV archives Researched by the indomitable Ariane La Gauche [image]
Reader Comment
”How do you p.r.o.nounce that, Claude or Clod?”
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Darwin Award Winner: Tennessee Pee Unconfirmed Featuring electricity, alcohol, gravity, and bees
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