Telephones plug into the wall, right?
Me and the same half-blind mate who featured in the nut and bolt story were much younger for this extravaganza...

Ferreting about in the loft at the age of perhaps 7 or 8, we discovered one of those old bakelite telephones. Fantastic, we think. Score. Now we can call people without having to do it from the living room in front of folks.

We lug it to his room and contemplate. We know that telephones plug in to the wall, so we fetch a plug and some tools from his old man's toolbox. After much learned (well as learned as you get at 7!) debate as to which wire should go into which terminal, we end up with what should be a working telephone.

We plug it into the wall, switch it on (at this point, the educated reader may already be smelling a rat) and we decide to make a call.

Lift up the receiver and *BLAM*. Cue worried parents tearing up the stairs wonder what the f*ck happened, and two kids white-faced in shock.

Thing is, we hadn't exactly wired it up to a modular plug, we'd wired it up to a 13A plug and plugged it in to the mains...

The telephone never worked after that. In fact it was in a bit of a sorry state with the bakelite cracked and slightly burnt.
(airbiscuit last dropped a meaty one in the lift on, Thu 12 Feb 2009, 22:11, Reply)