Drunkard Inventions
Some mates of mine had a house warming party when they started at Uni a few years ago. This soon changed to a street party since a few of the other houses had planned their parties for the same night, and the houses between them had decided to join in so as not to look like losers. It was the biggest party of the year, and to this date has never been superceded. It was summer, and a warm night so the majority of drinking was done outside. Anyway, fuelled on alcohol and a complete lack of a sense of danger, we got a little bit too inventive.

I'd just seen a program on how UFO's are meant to work and how if you coil a load of copper wire, and plug it into the mains it'll lift off and float in the air. While I thought that the majority of the program was bollocks, I found this to be quite cool and decided to share this little piece of knowledge with the street. Cue a street wide debate on whether it would actually work, and everyone who didnt think it would shouting "Go on then, prove it!"

This sounded like a good idea to me, since I hate it when people say I'm wrong. An extension cord, and half an hour later led to the experiment being ready. Sure enough, it worked. Mission accomplished. Id proven them wrong, and at the same time looked cool. And thats when, looking back, we should have stopped. However...

Three hours later and far too much money spent collectively at the local B+Q had led to every house door on the street wide open with a large extension lead coming out of every single one of them. The insulation had been stripped from the wire and the resultant bare copper had been wrapped around a car parked in the middle of the road until there was a large tightly coiled copper bumper around it. Thats right, we had drunkenly attempted to create a flying car.

So finally it was ready. It had got dark, so people in the houses nearest shone two 1000 watt torches from the bathroom windows lighting the car up for everyone to see in a spotlight. There were people ready to turn the power on in every house, and the entire local population gathered around the car to see it take off. The countdown started. 5...4...3...the anticipation was excruciating...2...1...CLICK!

The copper started to glow bright orange as it got hotter and hotter and then... a large fire took the place of where the car once stood, and the street, plus the entire surrounding area was put into a total black out which was to last for the following two weeks. Bugger!
( Furness, Thu 13 Apr 2006, 19:39, Reply)