There was a world famous 'incident' on one of the home shopping networks 15 or so years ago where they were selling 'Idiot Proof' jumper cables. They had two 12 volt car batteries and a set of the jumper cables with an Anderson type connector in the middle with red LED's indicating when the terminals were reversed. The guy demonstrated how you connect each half to one battery and the other half to the other battery - If you got a red light, you had it reversed. When both were connected to the two batteries with no lights, THEN you put the connector halves together and you would start the dead car
He did this 2 or 3 times with the gal looking on and then he left and she was left to sell the jumper cables. Unfortunately, she forgot step one, which was to separate the connectors before you clipped the cables onto the batteries. She hooked them up and within just a few seconds, the cables started smoking and a few seconds later, the studio was filled with maximum smoke . . . . and the jumper cables were destroyed!
I'll do a search and see if I can find a link to it - It's too humorous to believe!!
Don