Mary Ann:
Since this is your post, I'd like to tell you a "true-story" that happened about 80 years ago.
My grandpa and grandma were living in a small home in Parkville, Missouri at the time. Just a quiet, college town with little to nothing going on. However, there was a group of dogs that ran wild and always got into folk's trash cans. Grandma really got to "chewing" on Grandpa's fanny over her having to go out and clean up the mess every morning once the marauding pack of canines had passed.
Grandpa was a "thinker". He always studied a problem until he arrived at a reasonable solution. Then...he acted upon is decision. He "solved" the dog problem thusly: He went to the local junk-yard and found a piece of sheet-metal about 2 feet square. Next, he scrounged a rubber floor mat from an old abandoned car. Without being caught, Grandpa stole one of Grandma's long extension cords and "cut" the receptacle end off of it. Then, he "split" the two wires until he had about four feet of single wire in each hand.
Here's the "trap" he set: He laid the sheet metal under the metal trash can on the back porch. Next, he set the rubber car mat (his insulator) between the trash can and the sheet metal. He took one end of the split extension cord and "attached" it to the sheet metal. The other wire, he attached to the handle of the metal trash can. Late that night, he plugged the male end of the extension cord into an outlet inside the kitchen door. He smiled cunningly and went to bed. All of this, he did unbeknownst to my Grandma.
Now, you've got to understand that my grandpa was born in 1898. He could well remember the marching bands before, during, and after WW1. He was always impressed with the large bass drums and loud, clanging cymbals that accompanied these boisterous groups. Soundly asleep, he felt sure he was dreaming once again of those days gone by when he was a young boy watching those men in their fancy uniforms marching down the main streets of so many towns during that period of history.
That is, until he heard the high-shrieking caterwauling of a woman's voice that accompanied those banging sounds. Grandma had gone out and was going to "empty-the-trash"!! However, when she paused, she placed her toes on the sheet metal. When she grabbed the trash can handle...she created a "ciruit" with her body being the conduit through which the current flowed.....generously!!! She would shriek, try to throw the lid, bang the can, and shriek once more.
Granpa's "invention" was, in theory, a success. However, with consideration for Grandma's uncontrollable nervous twitching over the next several days, it was an abject failure. Not to mention her negative attitude to his presence in their home. Grandpa did a lot of fishing following that experiment.
Grumpy
