It was 1981 in Mississippi at the mouth of the Pearl River where they were building a chemical plant. I was a 2nd year helper…no apprentice program. The journeyman I was assigned to was working with an old German engineer named Otto. We needed to drive a separate ground rod for the TDC 2000 so I pounded in the rod I was given. The next thing I know Otto wants to check the resistance between that and building steel; He brings out this ground resistance meter and measures 190 Ohms. “Add another rod” he said with his thick accent. (most of those good ole southern boys down there couldn’t understand a thing Otto was saying most of the time.
The rod I drove was not threaded so I had to start over with a rod that was, again Otto tested and again the resistance was over 150 Ohms. “Add another rod”, another test and “add another rod.” This may have been old Mississippi mud but now it was time to get the air hammer. After six sticks and tests, the resistance was still over 90 Ohms and half the day had passed. Otto was getting tired of having his regular work interrupted to come and test every time but he wouldn’t let anyone else test either.
At noon time the temperature was into the high 80’s and it was sticky out so driving rod with a slide hammer was beginning to take its toll. Just before lunch my journeyman and I took the reading and found that it was the same as it was for the last test 10 feet earlier. At lunch I went out to the scrap yard where some old ground rod that had been dug up was laying. I dragged a piece in to the work area and cut the top off and drove the cut end into the ground just out of sight behind Otto’s pickup truck. When we came back from lunch and Otto came out to measure again, no change, 90 Ohms again. I looked at Otto and said “this doesn’t make any sense it should be getting lower.” Otto replied “I know vat are you guys doing out here anyway” Then I walked over by his truck and said “Hey Otto I think I know what’s wrong” Otto came over and saw the end of the old bent rod I had driven backwards into the ground. He immediately attached the end of the meter to the end of the rod and began to take a reading. “I get no’ting” he said and began checking the meter to see if it was correct. “No, I get no’ting, there’s some’ting wrong here” I walked back over to the end of the rod and yelled over to Otto to look, and said “could this be the problem” as I pulled the cut end out of the ground. “YOU SON OF A GUN” was all he said for the rest of the day. Three sticks later, at 110 feet we reached less than 5 Ohms.
