I once replaced some 1908 vintage 1000HP motor controls at a pumping station with solid state soft starters. The old stuff was indeed open knife switches on thick slabs of slate with holes drilled through so the conductors went in back. The room behind the slate was called the "suicide room" because all of the busbars were bare copper, 2300V! There was a path down the middle between the busbars and a set of open resistor banks (wound rotor motors) on the opposite wall. If you stood sideways, it was less than 1 foot from your shoulders to any live surface. One sneeze and it was all over.
Somewhere I have pictures of a salesman I convinced to stand in the suicide room while I snapped it. He kept his hands at his sides like a tin soldier, I guess I somehow neglected to tell him I had cut the power... heh. I need to find them, scan them and post them here, you guys would get a kick out of it.
