In Britain we have 240 volt mains electricity. Many years ago I went to stay with a pal in New York.
In the morning I was taking a shower and put one hand on the wall. I got a tremendous shock.
He was a DIY man and had just papered the bathroom and used the then brand new type of wallpaper with a very thin silver foil on the backing paper and this was overprinted with fishes and other sea creatures. The wallpaper was as sold waterproof and specially for showers and bathrooms.
All DIYers will know the way to paper round a light switch is to remove the escutcheon plate and paper right over the switch. Then come back with a craft knife and cut 4 diagonal slits in the paper to allow it to stick to the wall.
Well, my old pal, being a bit long sighted, had left one sliver of paper across the switch contacts when he put the cover back on. His papering had overlapped the various sheets slightly and he had managed to make a continuous connection from light switch near the door right round the bathroom to inside the shower cubicle.
We laughed later that he had redecorated the bathroom specially in my honour and nearly ended up electrocuting me. Actually I was his boss at the time so, had I fried, court proceedings would have been quite interesting.
Stark naked it does rather make one jump, even though it was only 110V!
In the morning I was taking a shower and put one hand on the wall. I got a tremendous shock.
He was a DIY man and had just papered the bathroom and used the then brand new type of wallpaper with a very thin silver foil on the backing paper and this was overprinted with fishes and other sea creatures. The wallpaper was as sold waterproof and specially for showers and bathrooms.
All DIYers will know the way to paper round a light switch is to remove the escutcheon plate and paper right over the switch. Then come back with a craft knife and cut 4 diagonal slits in the paper to allow it to stick to the wall.
Well, my old pal, being a bit long sighted, had left one sliver of paper across the switch contacts when he put the cover back on. His papering had overlapped the various sheets slightly and he had managed to make a continuous connection from light switch near the door right round the bathroom to inside the shower cubicle.
We laughed later that he had redecorated the bathroom specially in my honour and nearly ended up electrocuting me. Actually I was his boss at the time so, had I fried, court proceedings would have been quite interesting.
Stark naked it does rather make one jump, even though it was only 110V!
