Date   : Fri, 02 Nov 2007 13:19:08 +0000
From   : public@... (Daniel Beardsmore)
Subject: Smoking ! !

>> I had also be told that the capacitors in these old monitors could explode -
>> any truth to this?
> 
> I wouldn't worry about it. Sometimes stuff fails, sometimes noisily, but it's 
> very low risk that it'll injure anyone. I'd be more worried about sub-standard 
> circuitry in modern equipment (TVs etc.) than I would the old 80s stuff.

There's a funny passage in the already excellent, fascinating story of
Graphing Calculator on the Mac:
http://www.pacifict.com/Story/

At one stage, the author (and the developer) is sneaking around Apple's new
PowerMac lab (the first three PowerMacs ever, before they shipped) very late
at night, where he was not allowed to be (he didn't even work there any
more) and one of the monitors caught fire!

I've never had anything catch fire. I had a Microvitec CuB simply go bang
when I turned it on, and another screen (a 17" Diamond Pro, on my Mac)
cooked something inside and the picture shrivelled up and disappeared and
made the room stink, but no flames. (Although that was a 1997 screen.)

Sadly (happily!) no flames from anything here, yet ... It's always been a
fear, along with waking up to find my PC or Mac's hard drive disintegrated
in the night.