Brain Teasers
The Antique Lamp?
The Jones family of Ohio is entertaining their cousin Henry, who is visiting from Belgium.
After staying for several days, Henry is getting ready to leave, when he presents the Jones with a gift.
It is a lamp that Henry claims is a very valuable antique that has been in his family for 70 years. It has small Bohemian figures that dance around the base when the lamp is turned on. Henry plugs it in to show the family how it works.
After Henry leaves, the father looks at his family, and says, "While it may be a pretty lamp, and it was nice of Henry to give it to us, it is not a Belgian antique."
Why is the father so sure?
After staying for several days, Henry is getting ready to leave, when he presents the Jones with a gift.
It is a lamp that Henry claims is a very valuable antique that has been in his family for 70 years. It has small Bohemian figures that dance around the base when the lamp is turned on. Henry plugs it in to show the family how it works.
After Henry leaves, the father looks at his family, and says, "While it may be a pretty lamp, and it was nice of Henry to give it to us, it is not a Belgian antique."
Why is the father so sure?
Hint
Go with the flow....current that is.Answer
An antique lamp from Belgium would not have a plug that would fit into a standard outlet in North America. The father noted that the plug was a sealed plug not a replacement one and therefore was the original installation.He obviously bought it at a local store.
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Comments
Cool cool!
i agree agree!!!!
seriously tho, i liked it
I over-simplified and thought that the fact it was electrical disqualified it .. but it could have been more than 100 years old and still been electrical.. so you have correctly identified one of the great banes of world travel and a great business opportunity.. converters! I learned from Google that Belgium and France are similar but different from the rest of Europe.. If you travel, don't bother packing anything electrical!
that is very smart! I liked it!
good job
I too thought that just being electrical, it was no antique, did not think of plug in, real good, u got me there, but i liked it a lot.
good one!! i got in the hint!!
Nice Job, easy but still fun. Nice way to tell it as well. Hope to see more from you soon
I caught that right away. But it was hidden well.
Great.
Very clever if easy. I enjoyed it.
I do NOT enjoy having to travel with a converter kit in order to plug my blow dryer in while in other countries though! I even melted a curling brush once in Germany. Right plug coverter, wrong electrical current adapter thingy!
I do NOT enjoy having to travel with a converter kit in order to plug my blow dryer in while in other countries though! I even melted a curling brush once in Germany. Right plug coverter, wrong electrical current adapter thingy!
Nice, but didn't get it as its usually possible to get any converter
Good teaser. Having never traveled to any other country except Canada, it was the last thing that would have crossed my mind. I was aware of the fact that you needed to use a converter when traveling to other countries, but having never actually done any traveling, never gave it a thought.
Don't you think if he was coming from Belgium, planning to stay for a while, he would have brought an adapter?
As a heavy world wide traveler,it came to me immediately.But would be hard if you never traveled to foreign countries.
Easy, but fun.
By the nature of the riddle, I think it is erroneous to think that an adapter was used.
After reading the hint, I had it right off the bat. I loved it. Thanks for the great teaser.
Monday~
Monday~
If he was planning to give the lamp as a gift, he was simply thoughtful enough to have the plug replaced with a U.S. version. (Or perhaps he rewired it himself. I've rewired a number of old lamps; it isn't that difficult.)
The easiest simplest answer was also the correct answer. Cute teaser even though it was so easy.
easy teaser but a good one
Very interesting.
Great teaser.
Easy but fun. Thanks
Nice Teaser! Hint gave it away though!
Nice teaser; however, I agree with talanpoe that Henry could have rewired the lamp. When I was reassigned from Germany to Missouri, it was only necessary to change the wall plugs on the lamps and they worked fine, even the ones with the inline switches.
Thanks for the comments...
Good teaser
It is a good try. One could have easily replaced the plug so it would fit in a US lamp though.
I figured that a Belgium lamp wouldn't have Bohemian figures... they are different regions.
And solution and comments are all completely wrong. The lamp could have had a US plug fitted - which would have been a courtesy to the hosts - but Europe runs on 230 volts and the US on 110 volts - so it simply wouldn't have worked. Reasonable puzzle, wrong answer.
However, being a smart Belgian, Henry may have known this and thoughtfully had the plug changed before presenting the lamp as a gift.
It was a nice try, but the wrong plug is not a logical answer, as others have pointed out.
I did enjoy it though.
I did enjoy it though.
I had two thoughts...first, that a 70-year-old lamp probably wouldn't work without having been rewired...then thinking that to be considered a true antique, it would have to be 100 years old. Didn't really dawn on me about the voltage problem! Duh!
Ow! That was a forehead slapper for me. Of course. So easy, I didn't get it.
I thought of this answer then dismissed it. It is really really easy to rewire an appliance with a new lead, although I am an electrician by trade. I'm not sure what voltage was used in Belgium 70 years ago, so there could have been a problem there.
The hint made me think it might be DC instead of AC, but an incandescent light globe would still work, at least for a short while.
I thought maybe they didn't have portable lamps back then, with lighting being provided by only wall or ceiling mounted fixtures.
I also thought maybe the dancing figurines might not have been possible back then, depending on how they were done.
All said though, a good riddle that gets you thinking
The hint made me think it might be DC instead of AC, but an incandescent light globe would still work, at least for a short while.
I thought maybe they didn't have portable lamps back then, with lighting being provided by only wall or ceiling mounted fixtures.
I also thought maybe the dancing figurines might not have been possible back then, depending on how they were done.
All said though, a good riddle that gets you thinking
This isn't a logic teaser at all. This is trivia, or mystery.
makes a good teaser!
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