Oh, I know the type very well! As a kid I often put ours on a chair by my bed. Even then I didn't really feel great about that, but when you don't have AC, it d

Oh, I know the type very well! As a kid I often put ours on a chair by my bed. Even then I didn't really feel great about that, but when you don't have AC, it doesn't take much trying to sleep through a Mississippi summer night before you decide it's worth the risk for enough breeze not to feel like you're drowning. Ours was especially delightful too in having the speed control on the front of the base, so you couldn't even turn it off without having to think about what life might be like with everyone calling you "Stumpy". As far as I could ever tell, the grate's only there to keep it from sucking up curtains, and to keep you from getting caught up between the fan blades and the pedestal; with the torque out of those old motors, it'd certainly take off a finger and probably break an arm. For everything else you're on your own, which is why I don't really mind the scar I still have on my right middle knuckle from the only time I ever tried to turn it up to "high" without turning a light on first - if I'd missed the lever by a quarter inch more, that old cast-iron widowmaker would've given me a whole lot worse.