[quote author="clintrubber"]Hmm, 741's... makes me always think of that strange guy I had to work with during studies. One of his obsessions was to attack about each 741 within his reach with a car battery, power supply, whatever... his schematic was always like 'plus' to #4, 'minus' to #7. Without exception, each one blew off its roof... :? :roll:[/quote]
Many are the ways to Widlarization. Bob Widlar's preference was a hammer and an anvil, but he did this to parts that were defective, not just any old part for the fun of it.
There are people that are intrinsically dangerous around electronics. A friend worked with one in a physics lab, and eventually got into a fistfight out of frustration. Some of the schlemiel's tricks: take the most dangerous accessory in a lab, a mains power cord with clip leads on the end, and attach to the BNC input of a 'scope to get a signal. Of course the 'scope was safety-grounded and he reversed hot and neutral. It blew the breaker but not before ruining the BNC, which was a special order item from Tek and disabled the one decent 'scope in the lab for weeks.