Docedison:
Ungar made an iron in the 60's that has a famous history... it seems that the iron has a replaceable "Heat Cartridge" and replaceable tips... The Heater occasionally fail and vaporize internally... since it was "plugged it in it only had one way to go out and it would do so. Once I picked up my Trusty Iron only to have it go off like a small cannon and embed the heater cartridge in the ceiling.. (TRUTH).
Wow, you state it was the 1960's, but even back then it's amazing that someone could get away with selling a commercial product that could fail in such a spectacularly dangerous way during normal and expected use! It's a good thing you didn't point the iron toward's your other arm, or anything else you want to keep functional, when you picked it up that time.