Dangers of shifting classic computers (was: AT&T PC 6300 Plus Unix box)

-----Original Message----- From: pbboy <pbboy(a)mindspring.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Thursday, October 07, 1999 12:44 PM Subject: Re: Dangers of shifting classic computers (was: AT&T PC 6300 Plus Unix box) the Anyone who has worked on a Honeywell 316 power supply knows there is a long board (about 12" X 2 1/2" that plugs into a single socket on the bottom of the power supply. When I was 13/14 years old (don't remember the year) I pulled out the board and the connector broke in half. The connector wires with ends popped out so I had to reconstruct the connector. I asked my dad for some serious adhesive they use at his work place (steel). He brought it home and I slowly but carefully glued back in each wire into the connector and finally glued the connector back together (about 15 minutes close work). I got quite dizzy after a while and stopped working on it. What I didn't know was this particular chemical had sodium cyanide in it. That night I got dizzy, headaches, threw up.. The next morning huge sores were in my mouth, throat, tubes, etc... By about noon the next day I was in the hospital. I had close direct exposure to the chemical without any ventilation. The doctior did say a couple more minutes of use and I would have dies as it would have scarred my lungs. The hospital could do nothing and I suffered in amazing pain for a week. Worst pain was at night,... if I swallowed in my sleep I would wake up as the scarred tissue would open in my throat causing unbelievable pain. I have followed warnings on the bottles ever since. The doctor did tell me that they had one case like that years ago when shoemakers use to use that kind of chemical to fix shoes. Not fun. BTW The supply did work and I still have it.