While I was a teenager, before dryers, my mother hung the wet wash and sheets out to dry on a clothesline from our house to the back fence. She was irritated by neighborhood kids ducking their heads and plowing through the wet laundry. I decided to solve that problem for her. I had been experimenting with a spark coil used by the early Fords for ignition. It converted low voltage battery DC to a very high voltage. I insulated both ends of the wire clothesline and hooked the spark coil up to the clothesline. When kids tried to plow through the laundry, coming within several inches of the wet sheets, they were zapped by a long, painful shock. Later someone asked my brother Dean whether that was a true story of not. He said, “Yes! I was one of the Zappies!”
About Me
- George Richards Cannon
- My early postings were intended to be in sequence, starting with “Why This Blog” posted on December 3, 2011. After reading this profile, you might want to start your reading with those early entries. I am a 93 year old husband, dad, grandpa and great grandpa. I've seen a lot of changes in the world. When I was young, vegetables were still delivered by horse and wagon. As a radio operator during World War II, I communicated via morse code. Now I use my voice-activated cell phone to stay in touch. My career as a university professor of computer science spanned the time when a single computer took up several rooms of in a computer center and was less powerful than today's $2 calculators to the present time where computers are an ever-present part of our daily life. I am now legally blind, but even there technology has come to the rescue. My computer monitor is a big flat screen T.V. with large print magnification. I type by touch with very limited ability to see and edit what I write, so either someone else will have to edit my writing or you will have to endure all the typos. I look forward to sharing my thoughts, perspectives, and memories on life.
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