Re: Poll (& me being boring)

Thu, 19 Jan 2006 23:04:40 <43D01B09.A7B89603@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> uk.rec.humour Adelaide <atc12@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Wm:
Have I told my light bulb full of water story here yet?

I don't think so, please do!

I awoke one night because I dreamt water was dripping onto me. Turned on the bedside light thinking "strange dream", went to the loo and then back to bed. After a few more minutes (I am not sure how many and this may not make sense to those people who wake up fully alert most of the time) I realised something was dripping again so I got up (bedside light once more) and saw there was a wet patch. Girlfriend wasn't visiting that night and the damp patch was next to the bed rather than in it.

After some investigation I realised the drips were coming from the overhead light bulb. I was starting to wake up now but not fully. Light bulb dripping? Huh? Turn on main light switch to check seemed obvious at the time, a "pop" noise followed by darkness seemed a clue.

Turned out upstairs neighbours washing machine had gone wrong. A small but steady flow of water had run through their floor, into the ceiling space, sought escape through an exit point (my overhead light fitting) and run quietly down the cable and through capillary action had filled the light bulb until it overflowed resulting in the dripping.

I kept the light bulb full of water for a while as a souvenir but it broke eventually and there was some art about at the time (late 1980's) that featured similar things and people that didn't know my housing conditions at the time of the event had stopped believing my trophy was real.

>And using copper wire to connect the lamp body to the bicycle frame
>did solve the problem.

Yes. It would (see above). 

Yes, Wm ..., I know.  (Hint:  admitting to not being a professional
physicist is *not* equivalent to saying I know no physics!)  Why do
you think I tried copper wire?  However, it would have worked *only*
if the original problem was insufficient contact between the lamp
and the frame -- as opposed to a bad contact within the lamp, which
is what the problem had looked like until I made my connection
discovery.  That was the point I was trying to convey with the above
sentence:  that I had found, and solved, which sort of problem it was.
      For any females who might still be reading down this side of the
thread:  I had sicced the lamp problem onto a male, he spent half an
hour on it -- he did fix one problem but not the underlying one.
And when I told him that, and how, I fixed it, he was pleased and
proud of me!

You cleaned the connection between the lamp and the holder or between the holder and the frame with an old toothbrush and loads of bleach because you were pissed off because of the superior attitude of the man involved and suddenly everything worked again?

(note to all, stereotypical joke added in answer to 'lectricity type problem, I hadn't thought of Adelaide as a "toothbrush and strong chemical cleaning to express anger" sort of person).

>However, I'm now triggered to try to repeat the experiment under
>more reproducible conditions (minus pedestrians, eg),

Darn, woman!  Why do you want to take the fun out of the experiment?
Dodging cones just isn't the same.


I'm afraid I meant that I would turn the bicycle over in the dry
indoors --

I don't think you can really blame gravity (c.f. "turn the bicycle over") unless you plan to ride the bicycle ... I am not sure this thought needs progression unless you have an upside down flying machine to add to the urh goody bag (sadly lacking in new contributions of late).

--
Wm ...
Reply-To: address valid for at least 7 days from date of posting
.

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