Electric Spikes Roast Weinies (Dec, 1933)
Electric Spikes Roast Weinies
MANY weinie roasts planned in advance are dismal failures because when that day arrives it is pouring rain and the usual procedure is to call off the party. No need for that if you’ll utilize the little stunt below. You can hold your roast indoors.
All you need is two boards, a few nails and an electric light cord. Nail the 110 volt cord underneath the top board with large-headed nails. The nails should be placed between the strands of the cord for better heating effect and to hold the cord in place.
Baaaad idea. Not only are you likely to hurt yourself, but you will also be electrolysis which might cause poisonous substances to form.
OMG! I’ve seen everything! I’m convinced, magazine editors in the 1930’s were CRAZY! I’m a bit wacky myself, but hell no would I try doing this very silly and dangerous stunt.
Can you imagine the outcry that would happen if they would publish this on Popular Science again? man! I wonder if people back then got shocked and sued?
You think that they might have thought that their readers were smart enough to unplug it before putting the hot dogs on?
Of course today, they couldn’t assume that someone would be smart enough not to pour hot coffee in their crotch.
Still more sanitary then anything you’d get from a street vendor….
If one uses a pickle instead of the weenie, the pickle will actually glow brightly before beginning to dry and smoulder.
So, it’s raining too hard to start a fire, so instead I’ll expose naked 110v from the wall socket and touch it a lot.
I made one of these in high school electronics class.
We had the same thing as a project in my Cub Scout projects book, it was right next to the section on using an old extension cord, a light bulb and two skewers to get worms for fishing. Ah eight year olds used to have more fun!
I remember reading a story in Carl & Jerry about one. I think each dog peaked at 1.5 amps during cooking.
Sometime around 1960, Westinghouse actually marketed a hot dog cooker that worked like that. Of course, it had an interlock cover so you couldn’t be shocked with it plugged in and open. Someone probably found it quicker to bypass the interlock and got an early Darwin Award.
It should have a on/off switch and a warning about possible electrical shock. I now am curious and may try it myself.
They work great and will cook a hotdog completely in about 15 seconds. I have made a number of these over the years.
After:
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