When I was a rug rat, I stuck the blades of a pair of scissors in an electric socket and burned a chunk off the tip and popped a fuse. I vaguely remember it - I was probably 3 or 4.
Around the same time, my father and GF were replacing a gas stove, and had disconnected the gas line at the floor. I dropped a penny into the pipe. When they installed the new stove, the pilot lights lit OK, but when they turned on the burners, the flame at first burned high, and then died. Hey, I was just trying to pay the gas company!
My cousin, who was a teen at the time, was visiting. We had a kitchen chair with a torn plastic seat cover, and I hid a pin in the cushion, point up. I anxiously waited until he sat down. Wow! I never heard so many cuss words!
I always played with a magnifying glass in the sun, burning holes in leaves, incinerating ants, and popping caps. When I tried to burn a hole in a leaf at school, it set a whole pile on fire, but luckily I was able to stomp it out before I got into big trouble.
Other kids brought lunches in their lunch boxes. I packed mine with pieces from my chemistry set, and I can remember making a piece of chalk bubble with a mild acid, and chasing girls with it.
I always thought a 1.5 volt doorbell battery could not give you a shock. I hooked one up to a big electromagnet, and then disconnected the wire while holding both ends. What a shock!
In high school, there were some old TV sets in a storage room, and I was given the job to remove any parts I wanted and then smash the picture tubes so they could be more safely disposed of. I put some of them in a box at the bottom of a stairwell, went up the stairs, and heaved a cinderblock down to smash them. Maybe a second after I did, the vice-principal opened the door!
I found a box of old fluorescent bulbs and some round steel electrical box covers. My friend and I tossed the bulbs into a stream, and as they floated by, we threw the covers at the tubes. If they hit just right, they made an impressive splash. I'm a lot more of an environmentalist now!
Paul