Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!siegel
From: siegel@utgard.cs.cornell.edu (Alexander Siegel)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Looking for Computer Folklore
Message-ID: <24905@cornell.UUCP>
Date: 8 Feb 89 17:45:28 GMT
Sender: nobody@cornell.UUCP
Reply-To: siegel@cs.cornell.edu (Alexander Siegel)
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept, Ithaca NY
Lines: 26

I was once watching a technician change a PDP-11/?? from a 110 volt
line to a 220 volt line.  This machine had an emergeny power cutoff
which used a big relay.  He did the change by putting a big tranformer
in the power line to step down the voltage.  Unfortunately, he put the
cutoff relay on the wrong side of the transformer.  When he turned it
on, it hummed along nicely and started to boot.  I noticed that the
power supply warning light had come on and pointed this out to him.
The conversation went something like this:

I said, "Hmmm...  the power supply warning light is on."

He said, "Uh, yeah.  That's no problem."

The machine continues to boot...

I said, "Do you smell anything?"

"Yeah.  Smells a little like burnt popcorn."

Seconds later black smoke started to come out of the back of the
machine.  He had turned the cutoff relay into 5 pounds of molten copper
and plastic.

Alex Siegel - CS graduate drudge at Cornell
a.k.a. Scimitar;  a.k.a. Phineas Ginn (SCA);  a.k.a. Trash
siegel@cs.cornell.edu   (607)255-1165