At university, our engineering department had a "fuse buster". This was a clear Lucite box containing a huge resistor coil plugged into the mains and a large red button on the top. Next to the button was a schematic diagram of the circuit and a carefully worded description of the device, explaining how exactly it worked and stating quite clearly that pressing the button would flip the circuit breakers and plunge the lab into darkness and, in large letters, DO NOT PUSH.
I still feel it would have been better simply marked "do not press".
ReplyDeleteAlthough, the resulting rush to press it would probably not be very telegenic...
My favorite "do not press button" was the one synced to a building implosion.
ReplyDeleteAt university, our engineering department had a "fuse buster". This was a clear Lucite box containing a huge resistor coil plugged into the mains and a large red button on the top. Next to the button was a schematic diagram of the circuit and a carefully worded description of the device, explaining how exactly it worked and stating quite clearly that pressing the button would flip the circuit breakers and plunge the lab into darkness and, in large letters, DO NOT PUSH.
ReplyDeleteThe longest record was fifteen minutes.
David....
ReplyDeleteIs that how those 'Emergency Shutdown' buttons work or do they somehow OPEN the circuit breaker?
I suppose it's possible for a circuit breaker to include a relay that pulls the handle to 'off' rather than to 'tripped'.
Or... a relay AFTER the circuit breaker to act as an emergency off.