Ah, now that Christmas is coming, the Hallmark Channel is running shows about good old fashioned Christmas complete with good old fashioned toys and good old fashioned moral dilemmas like whether to make money or make kids happy... Which made me think of shocking people.
When I was a kid, we had a Gilbert Erector Set. Actually, we had two or three of them, with all the parts kind of mixed together. The oldest one had belonged to my older brothers. My younger brother and I inherited it all, along with a bunch of instruction booklets in that inimitable 1940's - 1950's style. We made lots of stuff with the Erector sets, but my favorites were the tram cars (like aerial tramways) that ran on string between two rooms, and the shock machine.
For a long time, I wondered if we had the only erector set that had instructions on how to build a shock machine, but Googling it now reassures me that it was indeed a feature of one of the sets (the "8-1/2" set).You took a few of the rectangular plates and assembled them into a holder for two "D" batteries, with room for an axle with a crank and gear on one end of it, and a piece of metal that slapped against the teeth of the gear when you turned the crank. Next, you assembled two "handles" that each used four of the 6 inch or so "girders" bolted into a square shape. Then you took some wire and hooked the battery/crank assembly to the handles, and to the two blades of the wall plug of the 120V electric motor. Then you had your little friends hold the handles while you turned the crank, and they got a shock that was guaranteed to delight them (Especially any budding personal injury lawyers, I'm sure).
The instructions helpfully explained the principle, which (as best as I can recall) involved sending the 3 volts of DC current from the batteries through the coils of the motor, where they induced a field that then "broke down" when the strip broke contact with the gear teeth, and sent a higher voltage current back in the opposite direction and through the handles and your little friend. It was supposed to be a high voltage but a "harmless" low level of current. It made a tingling, throbbing sensation that was actually much harder to endure when the crank was turned slowly than when it was turned quickly. It made the muscles in your arms tense and cramp up.
For even more fun, you could attach one wire to the handle of one of those cheap aluminum pots that most people had in the kitchen cabinet, and fill it with water. Then you were supposed to put a quarter in the water, and dare your friends to pick the quarter up out of the water while holding the other handle, while you turned the crank. I clearly remember that they said to use a quarter, because it impressed the hell out of me that you could safely offer to let them keep such a big piece of change (heck, it could buy 25 pieces of Bazooka bubble gum). Because NO ONE could grab the quarter, they claimed. (and inflation had already claimed some of the drama between the 1950's when my brothers got this set, and the early 60's, when I got my hands on it).
We showed this to other kids in the neighborhood, and one of them (a kid of about six who nowadays would be on Adderall) tried to imitate us and build his own shock machine.He took a more straightforward approach, using scissors to cut and strip the wire of an outdoor extension cord. That was my first lesson in the awful power of imitation. My brother and I (and our friend Mac MacArthur) hopefully convinced him that his version wouldn't be nearly as much fun.
And that toy was used when we got it! So much for the Christmas spirit of being good consumers.
