Cords to small appliances reminds me of my very first electrical experience. It was early 1950s and I was about 3 ½ to 4 years old and about as curious as could be expected. The family was at the breakfast table on which was an old fashioned toaster, the trapezoid shaped type with two doors that one had to manually turn the toast; I don’t think it even had a switch. The cord was cotton braid covered with possibly asbestos adjacent to the conductors; the two pronged non polarized plug was one of the Bakelite type with a loose thin fish paper covering the two screw terminals. The cord was across the table and plugged into the wall receptacle.
After the toast was done, my father asked me to unplug the toaster, which I did; but being a curious little boy, I wondered if the prongs of the plug were hot and touched them. I burned my finger, they were so hot.
My father’s response was, “don’t touch that, it is the hottest part.” That didn’t seem correct to me but I probably wasn’t articulate enough at that age to question my father. I remember thinking that maybe the wall was in danger of charring like toast burning if it really did get that hot.
All in all it is a wonder that we all have survived childhood and can post our experiences and advice for others to possibly learn something and maybe avoid some smoke and sparks.