Slippery screwdrivers...
...can really be a problem. Imagine the scene: me, about 17 years old, just completed building a short wave receiver, mainly from spare parts from old TVs. 1960s, so that meant valves ("tubes") and a 250 v DC line at the back of the aluminium chassis, also recycled from a TV. Needed to tune the little ferrite core in a coil (the only component I'd bought new). Picked up the screwdriver I'd made in metalwork at school: neatly milled brass handle, long thin steel business end perfect for the job. Unless you missed the target and hit the DC line. Fizz. Pop. Twitch! Jump!! I was definitely out for the count for a minute. Fortunately I twitched enough to break the contact. More fortunately, there was no RCD in those days so the power didn't go out and my parents never knew. Switched to transistors ASAP.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
