My! How times have changed!

That picture is great.

You might be surprised to find not much has changed though. When my now 10 year old was 2 or 3, I will never forget driving up our street on my way home from work and seeing him laying in the middle of a puddle blowing mud bubbles. Having the time of his life!
 
I personally don't remember the incident. My father told this repeatedly at family gatherings. It seems he returned from work one afternoon and asked Mom where I was. She was blind. Replying that I had been quiet for a while I probably required looking for. Pop found me behind the couch with a screwdriver. Seems I had removed the cover and wall plug from the wall and was just starting to remove the wires when he found me. I was, at most, three years old.(1954)

I always considered it to be the start of my career as an electrical engineer. The bottom line, for almost all children, is what they have to play with. All I had at the time was a screwdriver I had beat an uncle out of. I found something the driver would undo whereupon I found a couple more. Natural curiosity and trying to learn, nothing more. It would be the same for more modern kids and what they have to play with.

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Bi11, I ,at 6, found out what has inside a recepticle , by probing with my little pen knife. Suprised I am still alive, now that I'm on the eve of 70 yrs.
Dave
 
That’s the beauty of 110 volt systems IMO. They don’t bite as hard. Especially if you aren’t grounded. Looks like Edison was exaggerating when he said A/C was super deadly and he fried that poor elephant.
 
One side of 120 volt circuits is at ground potential, even in 1954. I guess I was fortunate to have started on the neutral side. Or possibly, with a wooden building, wasn't grounded and didn't cross anything. It occured in Falls Church, Virginia way back when that was in the deep boonies and the building probably had the old timey cloth bound romex and no ground wire.

As far as the muscle retraction goes, 240 volts DC "bites" a lot! harder than 240 VAC. After 50 years in the field, I'd much rather tangle with AC. Oh, and Tommy Edison was a good salesman, but no engineer.

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When a toddler I found a bobby pin on the floor and stuck both prongs into a 110-volt outlet. There was a helluva flash/bang and I got taken to the hospital to bandage my hand to treat the burns. Never did that again!
 
About that age, during WWII, we had an old Christmas Tree holder that had light sockets in it for colored lights. I have memories that one of them really bit you if you put your finger in it. I couldn't have been as much as four.
 
Funny how many of us had early "electrical outlet experiences". Mine was around 5 when I got an electrical experimenters kit for Christmas, It had a small bell that was normally powered by the kits D batteries. Well, I figured I could make it ring real loud if I simply put the wires into the wall outlet... first electric shock, first third degree burn and first time blowing a fuse and suddenly being plunged into darkness.
 
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