@Tinkeringbell dad wanted to give it one last shot. "Actually no, lets try the overload switch. Lets try that..." "DEAR I AM HAVING DINNER AND I TOLD YOU TO DO IT IN THE MORNING AND I AM EATING IN THE DARK! AND DON'T TRIP OVER THE DOG, HE HAD SURGERY YOU KNOW!"
my dad managed to wire the spotlights that were supposed to go underneath our backyard porch thing wrong. I think they were supposed to be wired parallel, but he made it serial?
Or the other way round.
Anyway, he managed to break things. Quite spectacularly too.
Fireworks that people can get ahold of are usually not too bad, and access to professional fireworks or high explosives is restricted. I probably should have left liquid metal off the list because it's difficult to get, but every several years someone will get a bunch of mercury and try boiling it in their kitchen.
On Halloween and New Year's it's a tradition (for teenage males) to set off fireworks next to the police station in the park. They couldn't do it this year (set them off next to the police station) because the place closed.
@Rob Yikes! A century or so ago, some people "mined" alluvial gold by pouring mercury into a creek, and capturing the mercury downstream. They'd recover the gold by distilling off the mercury. I expect these mercury stills would leak a fair amount of vapour, but the operators didn't care much because they were doing this in the open air. But I wouldn't like to be downwind of such a still...
@rene It was suggested in 2017 with 44+/1- so there exists a chance it's a secret hat, otherwise it's just a silver badge and a credit for your Candidate Score.