The email from which this was lifted off is only one of dozens. Without further ado, Clint Davis: Refrigerator light
bulb on/off??
Hey Vmash,
Bet you thought I forgot this one didn't you.
I was around 24 years of age once upon a time and having trouble with
my refrigerator. I didn't have any particular training in these matters
other than the electronics that I had learned while in the Air Force.
My freezer fan wouldn't run I think and it turned out to be frozen from
melted ice that refroze after someone closed the freezer door that had
inadvertantly been left open.
Anyway, mulling through the tedium of having turned off the power, put
the food in an ice chest and thawed out the fan with a hair dryer I
began to wonder if the light in the refrigerator went out when the door
closes.
This is the kind of thing that comes on me when I'm in a delirium of
boredom resulting from the tedium of performing the mundane task
involved when a solution has been reached to the puzzle of why the fan
wouldn't run.
At that point in time I was somewhat tired of fooling with the
refrigerator, but when I did plug it back in I actuated the door switch
on the unit several times to convince myself that the light did actually
go off when the door closed. This satisfied me for the time being as I've said
I was somewhat tired of this particular appliance at the time.
Later, on another somewhat dull and otherwise dreary day the dilema of
not actually having witnessed the light extinquished, with the door
closed returned to my conscious! Why this plague of thought I don't
know, but it was there awaiting my physical response. Recalling
something of the electrical schematic from the previous exercise I
devised a parallel shunt on the circuit feeding current to the light
bulb.
Testing with the door open and actuating the switch I did in fact
determine that the current stopped when I depressed the switch, thereby
simulating the closing of the door. Then observing the meter while I
physically closed the door that the current stopped also. The inference,
with the indication of current interuption upon closing of the door was
that the light went out.
This was better, but still not the conclusive evidence of witnessing
the light being extinquished by the closing of the door. However by the
time I had spent the time to perform this experiment I was tired of the
game again.
It was only about a year and a half later, while visiting a friend,
that I felt I gained real closure on the matter. The friend had a
refrigerator in his garage which had ceased to operate in the compressor
unit. Otherwise was fully functional, albeit not for the primary task
which it was intended.
This particular model had a cold water and ice dispenser in the
doorway, accessible from the outside, presumably designed to minimize
the number of times the door would have to be opened for these routine
needs. None the less, my friend being considerate of the need to resolve
these type of personal dilemnas cooperated with me in the removal of the
dispenser and the creation of an opening to the inner compartment. At
last, when plugged in I was at last able to see conclusively that the
light did go off when I shut the door!!! Eureka, I cried, both in
delight and somewhat in relief that this torment had finally reached its
conclusion.
Now, if I can just figure out how to not be in the woods to hear if a
tree makes a sound when it falls, but no one is there to hear it. I
would try a tape recorder, but what if somewhat found it and sabotaged
it with some strange recording and then felled a tree to make it look
like that was what the tree sounds like!!?!? Oh, my head hurts, I think
I'll take a nap and hope I don't dream about this!!.....
Have a good day Vmash, wish your Mom a Happy Birthday from one parent
to another.
 © 1998 Vertical Imagineering 'N Co. - We Engineer Epiphanies |
