MIT Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science

MIT's Building 20: The Magical Incubator Story, Anecdote, or Reminiscence

Electrical Safety

Ken Knowlton
EE '62

The most important thing that I learned there: whenever it's very hot in the summer on the west end of the building and I'm up on a chair to drill a hole for mounting a fan, be sure that at least one of these things is not true:

1. I have a firm, sweaty grip on a water pipe,
2. I have a firm, sweaty grip with the other hand on the metal handle of the electric drill, and
3. the drill has an electrical short to the casing when the trigger is pulled.