₦airaland Forum

I sat to sob about some two great but sad and experiencing event that happened to me many years back while i was in secondary school which would have terminated my life.

Yes, i mean which would have killed me, but ever since it happened, which is over 15 years now, i had never told anyone about it because the fear still live inside me up till today and in a way it even affected my choice of course i studied in the university.

You will wonder why?

Sit back and read the story in detail, lots of lessons to learn.

Sometimes back when i was in SS1, i watched a movie which today i cannot remember the title.
I’m not a regular movie watcher but sometimes i like watching documentary and educative movies, if could lay my hands on.

I watched this movie with my younger brothers this particular day, but they obliged to the choice of that movie because there was no shooting of gun and all those Jackie Chan moves but we later sat to watch it together after lots of arguments.

In this movie, there was a young boy who was also a secondary school student, and their practical class in school, they were thought how to make small electrical appliances which they can use at home.

After the practical class, they were told to go home and make one appliance which was to be submitted to the school the following week.

The following week, this boy, out of the whole class, was the only one who went home and made a boiling ring.

All i saw he did was, he attached an electrical cord to a used milk can, but I could not see the other details, and he took it to school the following day.
It was tested in the school and boy got a school scholarship, for being the only one that did the practical.

This motivation was what prompted me to the first incident that almost claimed my life.
I went back on my own, went to cut the electrical cable which we use at home for drying cloth. I got a used milk can. I made two holes on the can. I attached the two ends of the cable to the can. And that was my boiling ring.

I proceeded to practicalise my invention.
I locked myself up in the room and plugged the other ends of the cable to the socket. I put the tin inside water and i switched the socket on.
I watched the water closely and i found out that steam was not coming out, so i decided to dip my hands inside the water to feel if the water was getting warm at all.
Friends, the end was story!
I cannot really explain what happened!
All i know was, i found myself unconscious somewhere very far from my experiment site.
Immediately i came back to my senses, i packet the whole apparatus off, cleaned the room and pretended as if nothing happened.
That was my first narrow escape, and not until now, i did not tell anyone.

The second time was sometimes in 1999 and then i was in SS2. This event made me remember my very good friend then in class, Fisayo Dada, now an engineer.

Fisayo loved reading novels. He was a real scientist from scratch. He loved adventures a lot.
He was the one who performed the first live miracle I saw in my life.
He came to school with a bottle of soft drink, with a mature mango fruit inside it.
How he managed to do that was a great surprise to all of us that saw it. But he later taught us the trick and i went home and i had my own done.

He was the one that made me believe our eyes can see two images while looking a particular picture he drew.
If you don’t believe this, remind me and i will show you when we see.

Chemistry happened to be one of my best subjects in SS2 and at every class i was always paying good attention.
Fisayo came to school on a Monday and said he wanted to perform an experiment for us.
As my acclaimed magician, my mouth was agape to see what this guy had brought for us again.
The previous week in class, we were taught the topic ''Non-metals and its Compounds'' and Fisayo brought out a bottle from his bag.
The bottle was half filled with water and he told us that the empty part of the bottle was filled with hydrogen gas.
I dare not doubt him.
So he said he would test it for us all to see.
I remember well that the laboratory test for hydrogen gas is, ''it gives a pop sound when burn with fire''
He brought out a match box from his bag, turned the bottle upside down to release the water, while i stroked the match stick against the match box to ignite fire. As soon as the water finished gushing out i held the fire close to the bottle and we heard a loud pop sound, which confirmed it was real hydrogen gas.
I asked Fisayo how he got the hydrogen gas and he told it was by electrolysis of salt water.
He explained for me in detail how he did it, by passing electric current through the salt and water solution. I grabbed all the process and I was made up to go home and also do my own personal practical.

That day was a Saturday, my mum had gone out for a party, my brothers were outside playing and I was the only one left inside.
I decided to take that opportunity to perform that practical, so quickly prepared my apparatus, salt water, a bowl, an empty bottle and an electrical cable.
The cable was not long enough, so I joined the cable with another one to make it long enough.
I plugged the cable into the socket and I did as Fisayo taught me and I watch the experiment as it unfold.
As he told me, I saw a yellow gas escaping from the surface of the water, which was chlorine gas and I guess the hydrogen was going into the empty bottle as he said.
Within 3 minutes into the experiment, I heard the sound of footsteps and I thought that would be my mum. I just dragged the cable off the socket by force so that she doesn’t catch me there.
Friends, guess what happened. I landed loudly on the ground.
I have held the cable at the naked point I joined it together.
Because of the fear of my mum, I quickly gathered myself up and unfortunately for me, it turned out not to be my mum.
"WHAT THE Bleep"

So I would have died again, courtesy of electric shock!

But thank God I am able to free my mind and tell this story today but up till tomorrow, I dread electrical current so much.

This was one of the reasons I decided not to study Electrical Engineering, my desired course, even when I merited it after i finished the pre-degree programme in the University.

But thank God I'm not doing bad in my present career.