WHOOSH!

My parents bought me a 3M /Wollensak cassette player in the 1960's which I still have.
Batteries were not as inexpensive as they are today. I was going through those flashlight batteries as quickly as my mother drained spaghetti. The deck had an input for a special AC adapter, but the "plug," didn't come with it, and I'm sure it was expensive. Why buy a plug when I could make one.
I'm a genius!
I cut an extension cord & splicing the open end I soldered it directly to the input of the cassette deck. I then plugged it in the wall. So far. So good. What could possibly go wrong?I'm a genius!
I was sitting on my bed when I pushed play followed by a sound I'll never forget...
 
Whoosh!

Flames shot out of the wall! 
I mean FLAMES!

The cassette deck caught fire on my bed. A gray cloud of smoke blanketed the room. The wall was covered with black soot about 2 feet above the plug. The deck smelled of burnt plastic.

Like a good Italian I removed all evidence of any wrong doing washing the wall, & opening the windows.

The cassette deck was next. Wait. It still WORKED. Fast forward, rewind, it played too. Except there was no sound. I fried that component. I later told my parents, 
"I dunno what happened. It just died."I never had it repaired, nor did I attempt to do so many years later when I was studying TV/radio repair.
I left it as "EVIDENCE," of my youth. I swear every time I light the bar b q I think of that day.
Now where'd I put those matches?  
Whoosh!
 
This is my 1979 TV: AS OF TODAY 2015 it still works:

1979 Zenith System 3