Electricity. It's not just for breakfast anymore.

I don't know a whole lot about electricity and wires and stuff, but I do know that the two 120V conductors have to be kept separate from the neutral conductor, or else really bad things happen, generally including fire. The genius who installed our old wall oven apparently thought of this as optional. Oh yes, he did the junction in a box just like code says. The problem is that he put it in there with all the insulation all frayed off, allowing contact between the aforesaid conductors. You can see where the wire strands have made contact, melted, and balled off. Truly amazing. The photos show my cleanup job on this. I'm going to have an electrician come out, take this out, and put in new 240 service for the oven, which, by the way, is going to be totally no superable.