Why do circuit breakers go up for on and down for off?

Just because you haven't heard of an idea doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.

It also means, "To write one's signature on the back of a cheque, or other negotiable instrument, when transferring it to a third party, or cashing it." So you are *approving* the payment.

Then that might be done with a rubber stamp if you are "endorsing" a lot of cheques. Haven't you heard of "endorsing ink" used to recharge rubber stamp pads?

When driving licences were little books with multiple pages, courts would stamp details of speeding convictions on the pages. That was called "endorsing" the licence. When you had more than three (I think) endorsements you lost your licence for a period, equivalent to the modern "totting up" of points. That's why the word "endorsement" is used when you get points.

I don't suppose you remember the old style licences; they were little hard bound books about 3" x 2.25". On the front page you stuck a licence sticker which you got from the Post Office when you renewed it: provisional licences lasted six months and full licences three years.

Then they introduced the "paper" licences in the mid 70s, initially green ink on white paper.

I think we've already decided that originally leaf switches were used, which clearly /could/ fall.

James Watt did advertise the power of his steam engines in flattering terms.

A horse walking around a track doesn't get exposed to much fast moving air to evaporate the sweat it is generating.

Human cyclists can sustain about 1.3 HP if they are cycling fast outdoors because their air-speed is high enough to evaporate a lot of sweat.

They don't do as well on static exercise bicycles.

I used to go motor racing, spectator only. I saw a man killed in front ofme when he spun his vintage car and with no seat belts fitted was able to jump out and sprint to the edge of the track. The car behind him swerved and missed his car but killed him. In front of his family. I have seen cars in the most unbelievable crashed and the driver walk away uninjured, but shaken, Because they had full roll cages and four point harnesses.

Driving down the A10 towards Cambridge I saw some lights weave and flash and end up off the road. A Rover 3500 with 4 lads in it was upside down in a ditch., The front seat passengers crawled out and were OK, shaken, but not injured. The rear seat passengers without seat belts were covered in blood, and had I think a broken arm, and a dislocated collar bone and multiple lacerations from being thrown against a lot of broken glass and in fact contact with the ditch outside

The police said they were overtaking at an estimated 120mph and swerved to avoid an oncoming car.

A mother was killed in another incident when she rammed a car in front and her son, sitting behind her, without a seatbelt head butted her with his forehead and smashed her skull.

Only case of that was not a car but a motorbike, which being thrown clear of is somewhat of an advantage. Friend in Africa told me where the scars came from 'I was going along fast and I came to a corner unexpectedly, and there was a brick wall in front of me. I knew I couldn't make it, and decided to go out in a burst of glory, so I opened up the throttle. And my front wheel caught the kerb and catapulted me over the wall into a thorn tree and the ground, which smashed my collar bone, and put scratches down my face, but here I am...'

Indeed. In a car accident the safest place to be is inside the passenger compartment well strapped in. On a motorbike there is no passenger compartment, just a lump of metal with sharp edges.

Motorcyclists wear leather skin guards and a bone dome, not seatbelts

You can omit a seat belt if you like, but I wont. Not ever. And wont drive unless my passengers don't too. Not because it's a legal requirement, but because I have seen what happens in a crash if you don't.

Commander Wanker is just talking bollocks as usual.

"All you need is the power to stop if something shorts so you don't set fire to your house."

AKA a circuit breaker.

What?! If you're that sensitive to pain, many things around the house must hurt you every day. Are you ginger by any chance?

I've touched 240V AC across my hand. It just felt warm and tingly, I only knew it was an electric shock because of what I was touching.

Those things trip before you even feel it.

I couldn't feel anything unusual when I let go.

Maybe sweaty hands? Try doing the same with your hands soaking wet.

Try an electric fence, those are fun. When a teenager, I demonstrated a circuit must be completed. My friend touched the electric fence and said it was off. I touched the fence with one hand and the ground with the other, my arms did a mexican wave. No pain, all I felt was my muscles operating without my command.

Or you cheered up the tape recorder by giving it amusement.

Ask a woman to insert one.

I wonder how sensitive your eye is?

And just bcause it doesn't exist doesn't mean you can't invent it.

A curent limiter would be interesting. There might be objections relative to safety.

Utilities have self-retry breakers.

Just because you claim it existed doesn't mean that it ever did.

Premeeeeer? Stooodent? Of course they have difficulty with a lightbulb.

I've never seen a battery like that, and I have a brand new battery in my car. Perhaps you meant as part of the car connectors?

What did he do, jump start it from the mains?

A thin wire would be fine, as long as you don't need the wire again.

And you weren't holding the wire...

Possibly hooked it up backwards; we weren't sure. The forklift was an older gasoline powered model that tended to mark its territory. He was lucky the whole thing didn't go up in a ball of fire.

There was a freak accident at the Lime Rock sports car track. The driver was strapped in with the regulation three point harness but had the bad luck up ending up upside down on a large anthill. Can't win them all.

The first iteration of seat belts in the US were two point lap belts. They may not have prevented smashing your brains out on the dash but at least they kept you on the correct side of the car in the days of vinyl covered bench seats. My wife knew things were going to get interesting when I advised her to buckle her belt. While I liked her and everything I preferred not having her sitting in my lap at an inopportune moment.