> Castle" in 1945. His Chief would lovingly "caress" the spinning comm 
 > lightly with the palm of his hand, on morning inspection.
 > 
 > He felt no pain, because he touched the "neutral" zone of the comm, 
 > at a discrete distance from the ungrounded brushholder.
Reminds me of a story:
This new fella had hired into the maintenance department in a large factory 
and was assigned to work with this older electrician. They would often get 
called out to troubleshoot problems on the presses and other machines. The 
young guy noticed that the oldtimer would wet his fingers, raise his right 
foot, and touch the fuses. He'd then R&R the blown fuse, putting the machine 
back into service. 
One day, the oldtimer was out sick and the production foreman called 
maintenance for a non-functioning machine. The young guy went to the job, and 
did as he had often seen the oldtimer do, wet his fingers, lifted his right 
foot, and touched the fuses. He woke up in the hospital with the oldtimer at 
his bedside.
"What happened to you, Boy?" the oldtimer asked. "Well, I did just like I saw 
you do, wet my fingers, lifted my right foot, and touched the fuses. Next 
thing I know, here I am!" replied the kid. The oldtimer shook his head and 
told the boy, "What you didn't know is that I have a wooden left leg!"
Or as Murray and I would say to each other every time we energized a machine 
for the first time:
"Bzzzzt, Poof!" "Aw F#$!" (always said in perfect unison, of course)
 > Lascar mechanic was seated on top of a piston while it was still in 
 > the cylinder, examining the bore. These had DOXFORD engines- two pistons 
If you visit the Kew Bridge Museum web site in the UK, you can read about 
some folks who held a tea party on top of the piston of one of the big steam 
engines on display. I think there's a link to that site on www.oldengine.org.
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