Basic Goal: Make a dial regulating electricity.

I saw my Chem teacher take a cord that had been cut from a lamp with the positive and negative connected to two separate screws. He put the cord into the wall and the two screws on opposite ends of a pickle. The pickle light up and burned a little, but did not catch on fire.

I'm hoping to create a dial that could increase or decrease resistance from no power to full power (coming from the wall), (with increments of 1/8 power 2/8...3/8...etc) basically connect the dial to a cut off cord from an old appliance.

Any resources you would recommend would be helpful...I can vaguely read a basic circuit diagram...I'm going to take a technichal education for Pre-engineering next year in Precision machining/Robotics...3d printers...sumobots...3d manufacturing machines...my point is I'm most likely smart enough to do this

Any help is appreciated

 

That is a dangerous scenario due to the fact that you are working directly with the MAINS. You should not do that without proper training/certifications. Depending on your application, you can build a power supply that allows you to work with a safer voltage output that isn't tied directly to the main AC power output of a receptacle.

 

One wonders how bright the chem teacher is!!!

 

This is NOT something you or other should try to do. This thread will be closed for sure