Can you do it? How??
I took the girlfriend out for dinner (we rarely get the chance)...Left cellphones and all at home to avoid disturbances.
Lo and behold, while waiting for our meal, I spotted a busboy with a cheap 6' aluminum ladder.
He put it on top of one of the tables, climbed up, and with both feet on the "not a step", one hand on a fire sprinkler, was changing light bulbs on energized track fixtures.
I grumbled immediately about "never leaving my camera home again" (basically wrecking the enjoyable "no cares" dinner).
Then I did a mental inspection of the restaurant.
I can't go in a store without looking up at the lights, and my wife, bless her heart, puts up with me. I guess I'm very lucky.
Anybody got this same disease??...S

oh sure Scott...

it's not too had to pick out others with the same affliction either....

especially in those 'husband seats' the malls have where one can sit and stare at the pipework

probably a great place for group therapy eh?

Count me in for the session guys.

Count me in too guys, I have the double affliction of a mechanical and electrical voyeur.

Having been electrician/mechanic for an amusement park, I end up under rides at fairs and parks more then riding them.

I think I embarrass my wife.

Bob


[This message has been edited by iwire (edited 08-10-2003).]

OK, I'm in.......but the session WILL fail. Having been nearly everything you can be in the electrical trade, up to inspector/engineer, I assure you the affliction is incurable, up to and including walking down the mall (as a customer) and saying "Here kid, lemme show ya an easier/better/different way".

My family refuses to walk with me, not necessarily a bad thing.

Don't EVEN walk in Radio Shack/Ham Radio outlet with me. "Yeah, says the clerk at the counter - selling a 4' ground rod to a client, Ya wanna pound this into the ground and make sure it has NO contact with your building ground" IT GETS UGLY!!!!!!! I've had good friends of over 20 years walk away from me in that situation.

I would be willing to serve as a horrible example, and if you can cure me, there may be help for anyone, just learn to expect disappointment

Last Sunday, I went to a hamfest in Berryville, VA. On the way home, I stop at this place known to have good pies. Unfortunately, I can't do without the Nextel (rarely) but did leave my camera at home...dammit.

I'm wandering around this little country store/bakery, they have a TV set under a unit heater. On the TV set is a note that says:

"If you raise the antenna (old rabbit ears) into the heater, you WILL get a very severe shock"

My son, and the buddy that was with me drug me out of the store mumbling to myself. Then I realized I was in my truck and had my tools, they wouldn't let me go back and troubleshoot it either. I just wanted to know.

And YOU think I can be cured?

I don't thin' so, Lucy.

I find myself helping customers at the big orange box. Especially when I hear their "expert" giving wrong advice. I have to bite my tongue a lot in there or I never would be able to leave.

I also find myself in stores and restaurants looking at the fixtures and wiring. I often refuse to sit at a table under a wobbling ceiling fan. I once spent 2 mornings in a Hooters repairing their fans. Many were missing set screws and near falling. About 5 had missing blades.

What ever excuse works.

I try not to have company shirts on when I go to the big box stores, I will never get out of there.

Hooray!

That's why I never leave home without my camera's, and now they are so small I can put one in my shirt pocket, and one in my cell phone holster. I carry extra batteries and memory card just incase I find a place with the doors oped. Just bought a new camera that uses the xd card and will have the capability of taking almost 500 pictures on each of the two 256 mb versions.

I even take them to the john and find some interesting pictures there too, like broken lights and no GFCI's for the installed receptacles.

My wife has given up on me and puts up with my obsession!

When she's driving I take pictures of services, and any thing near the passengers side.

But in spite of my strange ways I do enjoy this business, I am interested in safety, and have been doing so for a long time!!

It's funny, but I had similar questions running through my mind last night.

I have to admit to the same affliction. My kids get after me sometimes for it. When I sit in Church and look up at the fixtures sometimes they might think I'm doing something else though.


Bill

I probably don't notice as much as the pros here do, but I sure look at wiring. I've noticed plenty of radio towers, myself.

Once I was just about to turn around thinking I was going the wrong way, when off in the distance I saw a New Jersey Network tower. I knew I was OK

On the Garden State Parkway, milepost 153, there is the NJ State Police tower. Anybody know what the nearby set of 4 towers is for? They appear to be some sort of Rhombic setup...?

My wife, the dear that she is, puts up with my schtick also.

George,

Noooooooooooooooooooo.............. You mean I'll stay like this forever? Scary thought!

[This message has been edited by C-H (edited 08-10-2003).]

I think we're all too far gone to be curable.

I find myself looking at power wiring, telephone poles, alarm panels, just about anything and everything electrical in places I go.

The B&Q store (similar to Home Depot) in Norwich is a good place to end up offering advice and to explain to people that those "helpful" cards posted on the ends of the aisles explaining wiring don't always give the full story.

I have the same affliction also.

great...

i have this mental image of the lot of us at the mall in therapy with some (poor soul of a ) shrink trying to talk us out of 'cieling whiplash'

Count me in one this obsessed club! I not only look at bad electrical work, I also look at electrical violations, tell the wife if I A) worked in that house or B) Inspected that house. I just started carring around a camera the size of a credit card. It fits in my shirt pocket, it takes 25 pictures, and I download directly to my computer. I have sent Joe several of these pictures so far. I realy don't tink that we are obsessed with electrical work, but we are obsessed with safety.

It can't be done!!!

iwire, I spent several years in an ammusment park. I have seen enough of the inside that I don't ride the rides at fairs and carnivals, period. Rush to set up and make money, run hard for a couple of days, rush to tear down and move on. Preventive maintence and safety inspections? Sure, in their spare time. The park was neat. The theater (long since closed) had a beautiful marble switchboard with all open knife switches for the stage lighting. Illumination for the operator came from a couple of Edison style (carbon filiment, clearly hand blown) bulbs above it.
I have often regretted not unscrewing a couple of those and giving them a place of honor at home.

Please add me to this Group Therapy list too!

Add my Wife to the "Spouses of the Afflicted, and are no longer shocked by the odd behavior" list to boot!

A few Months back, my Wife and I, along with a Freind of ours + his Daughter, went to Nevada for the day.
Got some pics of MGCN setups on the Primarys of 1Ø Transformers (along with other stuff).
Just before leaving, my Wife tells me that our Friend and his Daughter "Are still trying to figure out what the heck I am taking pictures of"!

That's how "Normal" it is around here!

Scott35

boy, we've an epidemic here

any worse and the spam will be touting those 'cures'for the afflicted

This is actually good to see. There will soon be enough of US to be classified as a group and we will not be outcast. You can explain to your wives that you belong to an exclusive club.
I recently went for my marriage license and I was taking pictures in the village hall. At my wedding my wife and children asked me not to take any pictures and to leave home my "MAN PURSE" which is what they call my camera and case. I did take pics that day, and also on my honeymoon, I was just more careful not to be 'caught'.
Joe, you are the one who got me started on this! Thanks

Pierre

[This message has been edited by PCBelarge (edited 08-11-2003).]

An incident I remember particularly was at the LA Convention Center, in the parking structure, during the ElectricWest Show (before Joe's seminar).
A group passing by commented on the "weirdo" taking pictures of the lights (baaadly cord installed).
Maybe they'd had some kind of vaccination?

Try working on traffic lights. I can't drive anywhere on the weekends where I don't feel like I'm at work. Even if I get out of town I count the yellow gap and all red time on other localities lights just to compare. It will drive you nuts if you let it!

What's worse is that your condition is highly, highly contagious. The symptoms begin spreading to non-electricians upon exposure to the photos you've taken. Once the contagion has begun to germinate one is compelled to visually assess switches, service panels and wiring at every opportunity - even cords to seemingly benign household appliances in the hopes that all is well but suspicious that there will be some evidence of error or questionable workmanship that could be detected.

- .. this could be more serious than we thought!


Bill

Just came home from a week in an ocean front condo, that charges an arm and a leg and your firstborn. Guess who made the panel? (FP, loaded, with the red handled breakers) The electrical infrastructure of the building is shaky at best. With none code wiring and poor practice. I would have never noticed, except for what I have learned from this board! Sooo.. maybe it's not my fault?

count me in.

TW

Oh dear, Oh dear,
I now have to admit the following;

#1 going to the mall with the girlfriend, spending most of my time looking out light fixtures, receptacles, panels, fixed wiring tubing and almost every conceivable connection for any type of item as long as it is cabled !!!!

#2 going to The Big Box Store (B & Q over here) NOT in company uniform EVER, to pick up something that i should have bought from the suppliers in the week, trying not to pass comment on the weekend D.I.Yer (Destroy It Yourself or shall we Fxxk Ix up ourselves and then call a proffessional in Group)who will bye a 9500watt 230volt shower and then pick the cheapest cable, no GFCI, no protection for cable etc etc. i have to walk away.

#3 having my nieghbors asking me about how to wire up a light fixture in there resisdence, and me saying ` i wont tell you how to wire it because you are not qualified, but i will wire it for you, if your wiring is up to code and the fixture is built to code!!!
I have found out that they dont seam to ask anymore??? am i doing something wrong, i dont think so i am a proffesional eelctrical engineer and i dont like sloppy and or damgerous work!!

I think i also suffer from the same affliction as everybody else here, but do i care, naw not a bit.!!!

John H

oh yeah!, that automatic gag reflex gives me away every time........


gotta be an rx for this.....

it gets better Bill...

fess up, how many here have had thier other 1/2 say 'now cut that out'!or something similar within earshot of others?

usually old hens that think you've copped a cheap grope of the missus and turn thier noses up at you in disdain....

And what about us non-electricians?

Like Joe, I wander into washrooms in restaurants (some really nice ones) and am confronted with missing switches and the wires pouring out of the open device box.

Rusty fuse boxes in the bathroom, a gutted ceiling exhaust fan with the little disconnect (for unplugging when you're cleaning the fan) dangling all over the place.

One former turn-of-the-century speak-easy in Greenwich Village sat me and a friend at a table where the little lamps at the booths were all hooked together to extension cords draped all ovver the floor and into that was plugged one of these:

[img]http://images.lowes.com/product/032664/032664273100.jpg?wid=158&cvt=jpeg[/img]

and into that was screwed one of these:

[img]http://images.lowes.com/product/032664/032664270307.jpg?wid=158&cvt=jpeg[/img]

The two lamps were then plugged into the side outlets and the screwshell on the adapter was wide open to whatever. You get the idea.

One of the replacement "quickie" plugs on one of those little lamps had scorch marks on it also.

I saw this after I felt it with my (bare) knee. Pulling the entire clump up I show the waitress and she comes out with, "oh don't worry, our bartender's a fireman." LITERALLY that's what she said!!!

In retrospect I should have pulled that connection apart and taken the plugadapters with me. But then I would have gotten into a confrontation with the bunch in the next booth over because I turned off their little light and then they couldn't see what they were eating. Didn't want that. I ate my mashed potatoes instead....

There's one Chinese restaurant I go to regularly where I think they mounted the porcelain lampholder in the bathroom directly to the ceiling tile.

The molded plug on the rice cooker is held together with duct tape. I've been tempted to ask them if they want a real plug put on it...but I'm too chicken to ask.

Here's a few more gems:

In the motel I stayed in in San Diego, the circuit for the wall sockets was faulty -- the outlets kept losing power.

To add to this, the icebox and microwave oven were connected to a socket on the other side of the bureau by a 16-gauge two-wire cheap extension cord (with two cheater plugs for the three-pin plugs of the two appliances).

I had to go to Home Depot and buy one of those little screwplugs
[img]http://images.lowes.com/product/032664/032664116506.jpg?wid=59&cvt=jpeg[/img]
so I could plug the spouse's cellphone charger in the wall sconce to let it do its thing without beeps an hiccups. This cranks my collection of these things to FIVE!!

An open box with two wires dangling out of it on the same motel grounds (sticking out of a patch of dirt on a piece of plastic pipe).

The other night I was at the farewell party for a friend who's moving to Israel. This was being held in the painter's shop in SoHo of another friend of his.

The wall mounted lampholder in the bathroom had lost its pullchain (in the "on" position, unfortunately) and you had to twist and untwist the bulb to turn the light on or off. I offered to replace it!

A few months ago I stopped by this former antique store that was giving away all its remaining garbage. I took a bunch of drop cords out of a box. When I got home and popped open the brass lampholder, I pulled out a strip of crumbling masking tape wrapped around the interior mechanism in order to keep it from sliding out of the brass shell.

It's all Joe Tedesco's fault!!!

I REALLY REALLY gotta get myself a small digital camera -- I'm too lazy/busy to carry that big honkin' Minolta SLR 35mm around New York...sometimes you don't have the time to be messing with that thing when you go to the bathroom...

My little Instamatic knock-off will have to do for now.

Have I bored you all yet? hehehehehe

[This message has been edited by SvenNYC (edited 08-11-2003).]

This is how warped i am... I had back surgery on August 1st. My last words to my surgeon just before i went to sleep "Doc, dont yank on those surgical lights too hard, those things weigh a ton!"

I'm undergoing spine surgery and all i can think about is how the light is mounted. Hoping it was securely all-threaded to a steel bar joist above the drop ceiling. How's that for needing therapy!

[This message has been edited by arseegee (edited 08-11-2003).]

well i mighty well join in too.i went with the wife for a bone marrow
transplant for her brother in durham n.c.big hospital duke university. what might ya know.serivce man checking out backup genny, what do i do, go look & talk & check over generator. went by huge sub station,what do i do take pics.go to motel & ask to see the switch gear room. by this time the wife is ready to wring my neck. so i leave & go to the mall.whatda i do, go check out the meters & some tacky wiring.:eek h well, thats not all, call the local electrical comp. ask if they have any old a base meters for sale, nope. but tell which scrap dealer to check,wife says "no way." even took my camcorder to my local hydro plants to take pics of some 1940's generators. the wiring looks like some thats been posted. but still in use.as a matter of a fact stop at every old substation i see.



[This message has been edited by circuit man (edited 08-11-2003).]

maybe we just get too many of these?

I wonder if any of us are on some list somewhere for taking all of these pictures, with all of the new Homeland Security endeavors...

OK,

I understand it's therapeutic to talk about these things, so here goes ...

This is 4th of July weekend at a popular Timeshare Resort in the Pocanos (Penn.).

These and a few others like them found their way onto my camera even before the car was unpacked. >> My Holiday

What's a guy to do?
I was just walkin' up to the place ...


Bill

[This message has been edited by Bill Addiss (edited 08-11-2003).]

sparky — I gotta back up a couple of frames. Are electrolytes sort of 'mix your own' gatorade?

Whenever I'm in someone's house, be it good friends or someone I barely know, if I see the typical selection of beat-up appliance cords, cracked plugs, and cord caps where the outer sheath isn't gripped properly, I always find myself saying something like "You really should get this fixed!"

I suppose some people find that rather strange. ECN members will consider it perfectly normal behavior, of course!

Funny you mention that.... First time I came to the U.S. I ended up starting a traffic lights quite a lot, and timing the yellow phase, which in most places seems to be rather longer than in the U.K.

Take a look here , and you'll probably end up mentally running through the wiring possibilities for the different arrangements!

Thanks Paul, that was a very interesting link.

"Homeland Security"
I got some very suspicious looks while taking pictures of the KFI radio tower shortly after 9/11. Didn't think about it at the time.
If you send some of those pictures you're taking to Bill at Photos@electrical-contractor.net he can post them in the Photos for Discussion area. This might help alleviate some of our group agony...S
(Electricians unAnonymous)



[This message has been edited by electure (edited 08-12-2003).]

I work in a local utility durring the day repairing and rebuilding distrubution equipment. Every time we pull through the drive-through of a fast food restaraunt my kids can expect me to say something like "Hey kids, I fix that stuff!!? as we pass the padmounted transformer. Or pass a substation, Pole mounted switches, regulators, reclosers, etc. They really get bored when I point out the different voltages on the pole. THERE IS NO CURE!

Blessings, Mark

Hi Guys:
I've never admitted this "illness" to anyone until now. When I was just a little kid, I was drawn by the magic contained in electric breaker boxes, panels, safety switches, etc. in a great many places - my school, stores, other people's homes and garages in the neighborhood, my church, etc. Pretty daring stuff...sometimes I got caught, usually not. I don't have the nerve to do that any more, so I do my oogling from a distance, and add to my own personal collection of vintage equipment, thanks to friends and eBay.

Is there one of us who has passed by a door labelled "High Voltage" (sometimes even calling out to you, beckoning to you with that characteristic Hummmmm from within) without trying the doorknob...?

There are lots of bad vices in the world today, so I guess this one isn't particularly bad after all... A psychiatrist might offer group rates to "cure" us of these maladies. The problem lies in finding one who makes his office in a building having no electrical installation whatsoever!

Mike (mamills)

[This message has been edited by mamills (edited 08-12-2003).]

Hmmm, now you've got me thinking that my investment plans for a patch of wilderness in high country might have some marketable value: retreats in non-wired surroundings for the electrically-minded addict. Betcha I could set up a week-long fishing, hiking, hunting kind of detachment therapy session in a setting that is reminscent of a pre-Edison era and give your humming minds and clicking cameras something else to concentrate on. I'll have to check the listings on real estate this afternoon......

Bren:
Sounds wonderful...I can almost hear the quiet now.

Mike (mamills)

[This message has been edited by mamills (edited 08-12-2003).]

You're fried, Bren.

With this group, it would be "See that tree, I once saw an idiot........"

Look at that cloud, reminds me of an underground splice one time.....

Squirrels, you know, they chew insulation......

I keep tellin ya, THERE IS NO CURE.

I'm afraid George is right.
I took pictures of the electrical system of the boat I was on the last time I went fishing. ...S

Wow, I just rented my first boat this past July and what did I do?

I opened every hatch and seat cover checking out the wiring.

I just had to know where the FM radio antenna was run to, as I was getting great reception.

I could not do more than a day or two without electricity, camping to me is a condo/hotel in the woods.

Bob

Plan B: buy an existing retreat (where I spent all my childhood summers when my mom was camp cook using two massive wood stoves & where Jack Dempsey trained eons ago) and invite all sparky-types to bring their tools, code books & manuals, cameras and anything else they might use to overhaul the inept, erroneous or aging electrical system and do it right with copious amounts of campfire time for discussion included. All boats are either belly-boats or row boats so no wiring there. Even the camp signal system is non-wired...an old train bell with a rope pull.

Go ahead, throw me in that briar patch!!

Thoroughly genius, Bren!

In my leap back toward historic times I thought about 'the cure' of this condition and concluded that it would only be erradicated if all work was done to code, meticulously performed in logical sequence and spaces with ample room, lighting and a thought to future needs, etc. It made me think of the Enterprise and its successors... you know, Cap'n Kirk's ship on Star Trek and on to Jean Luc Picard, et al. Isn't all of that about the future of a superior class of folk that never would try to pass of slipshod work? I imagine though that if you went looking, you'd find some southern engineering there, too.

What I've noticed about handiwork, whether a genteel craft like cross-stitch or in a telco closet serving several floors with 1A2 key or more advanced technology like ISDN, DSL and the like, that the design and its finished product bear the mark of the person who's hands performed the the work and some are unmistakably loaded with character (if nothing else). Though the safety factors shouldn't be neglected, it would be dull without having those elements of indivduality.

Ya know, I've got a 12V solenoid, we could put it on that bell, attach it to a car battery, Joe could get a pic, and...........

DON'T forget Bren, I'm not only a Sparky, but also a Ham. Trees, God gave us those for someplace to hang an antenna.

To BugabooBren--

Sorry, the wilderness lodge thing won't work! DW and I go to a wildernss lodge in the Canadian Rockies, the place is 40 miles off pavement and 17 miles from the nearest road. It's either hike in, or heli in. We hike!

The place has a low-head hyrdo RE system, and the last couple of times, I've taken in a full complement of meters and gear to evaluate and tune up the system! It's the best of all worlds, to hike all day, eat a great meal, and then go to the root celler for an hour and do some testing!

It is interesting, though, when going through Canadian Customs, to tell them that all the test gear is not for work, it's for vacation!

Cliff

My father was an engineer for a poco essentially all of his life. I inherited (by genome and by nurture) an abiding interest in all things electrical.

I navigate by overhead lines. When I am driving I use high tension towers as a way to figure out where I am. My normal commute from work in I93 to I495. If I am deep in thought I have been known to forget to exit I93 at I495. I recognise my error by seeing unexpected towers.

When ever I go on vacation I take pictures of things electrical.

Turning me off from this would probably take 4160V

Thanks,

Not an electrician, but thanks to this board I know check out all the electrical systems that I see. I never really noticed them before.

However I was a facility manager and am now the safety guy, so now I cehck out everything! I have a particular fascination in looking at sprinkler systems. I was at a wedding and I spent most of my time checking out the sprinklers in the church.

One of my favorites was in the Burbank airport with a sign painted on the wall with 2 foot high letters saying Fire Extinguisher with an arrow pointing down and of course no fire extinguisher. I was so close to telling somone to put a fire extinguisher there.

I do have a habit at work of looking up and following the conduit and pipes up there. This started at my old job where the place was 450,000 square feet. They say at work that someone could run a hose on the floor and I would miss it. However if someone hangs some conduit crooked that I will see it.
Scott

Gotta put my two-cents worth:

1. Whenever we visit friends or see new homes a friend bought, the first place I head is down to the basement to check out the panel. Sad.

2. Last date night my wife & I had she caught me staring up at the ceiling. She said, "let me guess what you're looking at." Yup, I was looking at the exposed EMT between j-boxes, making sure they were supported correctly, etc.

3. Visiting another friend's farm, went into their pole shed, looked at the old Square D Fuse box from a distance with strange objects protruding from all sides. Walked up to it, opened the panel, noticed all the knockouts were removed, and corn cobs stuck in their places. One of the socket assemblies was missing, exposing the hot bus bar, and one corn cob was within an inch of it.

Like many of you said, we just can't seem to not notice the good work and bad work you see out there!

That would be the broadcast array of WPAT 930 AM, Clifton, NJ. The circular rings at the top of each tower are "capacitance hats", used for tuning each radiator to the proper frequency. By adjusting the signal phase fed to each tower, the radiation pattern of the signal can be altered. One of the towers also supports smaller antennas used for the stations FM operations. Pics of the array and some station history available at:
http://hawkins.pair.com/wpat.shtml

njwirenut:


Thank you! Clifton is within walking distance of where I live. I had searched the FCC database but couldn't quite figure out which station has that neat array.

I'm also not far from the WEVD 4-tower setup off of Route 3.

I was in awe the first time I saw the rotating antenna at Newark airport (radar, I presume).

Damn the architech who designed all open ceilings in stores. My wife just laughs when we go the the "Orange" store or Kroger or any other store with exposed electrical. I will admit that I have noticed interesting ways of installing and have used these ideas in my installations.

IMO,
You can't turn off from being an Electrician.
Look at it this way, even after a hard day of crawling around in some nasty crawl-space or pulling cables until the cows come home, we still like to get on the Net, to talk about, you guessed it, Electricity! .
This takes real dedication to the Trade, I reckon.

Ever catch yourself correcting the Electrical Department "pro" at the Box?

Asking DIY'rs "Why are you buying those? They don't go together"

or telling them "Don't waste your time and money buying those 39 cent receptacles!"

Before I got married (hell, before I was "officially" dating her) I offered to run a 240 line for an electric dryer at the not-yet wife's house in St. Louis area. Had been to the house before, and pulled one of the old breakers. To save time (and avoid having to bring the shop with me) I told her where to go, what to ask for, what parts to buy, etc.

When she went to the Box, and showed it to the "pro", she got told "Oh, you need a license to buy breakers, little lady."

(If you ever want to piss off my wife quick, call her that.)

She responded "Then why aren't they locked up? Oh, don't worry. My electrician friend has a license, and he'll be happy to stop in. And talk to your manager. Your district manager."

The thread that will not die???
OK, on the subject of the radio tower
http://www.yanak.com/lightning2x.html

No that was not the tower I took the picture of the guy being cabled down on, BTW, that one was about 1/8 mile outside of my office door. I check towers on a regular basis to look for capacitive coupling problems with the guy wires.

It's an animal with a life of it's own I tells ya!!!!!!!!!

Everybody have a good labor day, we ALL deserve it. I've always said, for gummint sponsored holidays, only 2 are worth a danged,

Labor day for all the folks that did, have, and will keep building this country.

Veterans day for all the folks that gave it all to keep it this way.

I look real close to those politicians who want to use labor as slaves, and vets as chumps - I like to remind 'em about it in November.

There was the time I was in our local Big Box Hardware store, and on a post near the paint section was a 4SQ box about 4ft with no cover, just some wires sticking out. About 30 feet away was the electrical dept where I am sure they could find some kind of cover...

Or I'll notice that the bank has four different color fluorescent lamps in it's fixtures.

Great Picture George!

$.02
Does anybody wonder what lightning looks like on the other end?

BTW My neck is always kinked.

The ones who know are not around to talk about it

no matter where i go my wife always meantion to me about alot of electrcal stuff and when i am chatting with my freinds and it is hard to keep my mouth shut about electrcal stuff i know i know i did drove few peoples nuts but unforetly the habites die hard but it do come handy when few peoples asked me some question and not too long ago i went to camping and one of my freind say that ihave the second brighest area for camp site and i say yeah because i brought big hps light to see around the area ( not to mention it did attached oddball mestqoies in that area ) and no matter where i go i alway look for electrcal equpiment and look at it and see what ican come up

merci marc

Well, I must admit that I have walked into lamp-posts and the odd person while walking down the Main street in town and looking up at all the wiring underneath the verandahs in the other direction.
And when you walk as fast as I do, this tends to hurt a tad!.
Crooked or incorrectly installed TV aerials are something that always catch my eye too.
Looking at these and driving at the same time is probably not the safest, but it's just HABIT!.

I've always wondered that myself. I also always wanted to know what happens to the ground that gets hit by a bolt of lighting.

My grandmom once told me that you sometimes find a small, deep hole...with a glassy hard black spherical pebble lying at the bottom.

Could it be that the dirt just gets molten from the heat of the lighting strike and turns into a small rock?

Sven,
Now THAT I've seen. If lightning strikes something containing sand, or on sand, It'll leave a glass like substance, also seen fallen power lines do the same thing though.

The rest of ya, on the other end of the lightning bolt is an old man, in a robe, with a beard and sandals.......... aintcha seen the pitchers?????????

Saw a few nice PBS educational episodes on Lightning Discharges, which showed the resultant of Discharges in Sandy
Soil (>50% Sand composition).
They dug up 3 foot long "Fulgurites" (sp???), which were solidified sand tubes of apx. ¼" to ¾" wide. Sand fused into
a Glass-Like substance.

Very interesting broadcasts!

Scott35

I've seen these sand "sculptures" for sale at a place we used to vacation at near Jockey's Ridge State Park in Nags Head NC. The link below says that they can be from a few inches to as much as 40 feet long.



Bill

(from http://members.aol.com/natehoyt/fulg.html )

Yep thats me!!! I did that just Sat... I was at a wedding and was checking out the pool fountain...the pool lighting... the outdoor lighting... the ploe lights... the hall lighting... the hall lighting controll system... ect.... it never ends... HELP!! LOL!
Joe

Heh heh heh... Old post time!

I always look up at the conduits at stores, especially Wally World! My mother's getting tired of me snapping pictures of electrical lines on my cell phone! I once refused to sit at a table at the local chain-restaurant, but was forced to sit there anyways. Heh! The next day, I read in the paper that someone got injured when the light fell! The person after I left.
Say that again! I get lost when utility poles are replaced, or high-tension wires replaced. (In '03 they upgraded some towers around here, needless to say, I got my mother lost in Middletown Twp. one day. ) My father also has me stuck on identifying which telecomm lines on the poles are cable vs. telephone.

I blame this forum for spreading this disease! I'm not even an electrician, heck, I'm not even 15! And I have it.

Great this thread got bumped up.

I'm glad to share this obsession of noticing electrical equipment all over the place, sometimes to brass off the misses when I disappear into an alleyway during shopping to have a look at an old switchboard or meterpanel.

Also more than half of the holidayphoto's are usually of electrical equipment or trains if we are near a railway line.

I use the HT powerlines as a guide during travel too , also to see if I have missed a switching yard or substation station somewhere in my travels.

This is a great forum and it is great to see that I'm not the only one obsessed with an electrical defect.

The POCO industry keeps me busy with the real fire works.

I have sub folders in my vacation pics labeled "work" it has gotten to the point where my wife just ignores my compulsion after 23yrs. Rod

When I go abroad on holiday I tend to get a kink in my neck walking around stairing up at all poor workmanship in these mediterainan countries though it is starting to improve as they join the EEC and learn how to do it right.

Back at home I was in a big DIY store when a young lad tried his best to sell me an "all singing all dancing" cordless drill (must have been commision time) and he would not give up or take no for an answer.
So eventualy I pretended to be intrested. Much to his delight then I droped my bomb shell " I have a big garden and work a lot in my shed so could I buy a cordless extetion to go with that? must have a range of about 150 ft thanks" so off he trots to the back store to look for a cordless extention While I disapear home

It's sad, but as an electromechanical engineer, I do this constantly, too. Worst example- a few months ago, I was out in San Diego with one my electrical technicians and we decided to hit the San Diego Zoo... and we were FAR more interested in the exsquisite engineering in the drainage system and the emergency power setup to maintain pumps and power to the cages than the animals themselves! Backs to the cages, pointing out different components of emergency generators and autmatic transfer switches half-hidden in the bushes near almost every cluster of cages. I'm glad my wife wasn't along on that trip!

Even worse was when I met up with a Roman aerospace/structural engineer for a 2-day tour of the ruins of Rome, but I think professional curiosity is easily justified there! I mean, you can hear about gladiators anytime on the history channel, but do ever they mention how the romans used gradiants of aggregate in their concrete and iron straps glued into place with molten lead poured through sprue-like troughs chiseled into the blocks expressly for that purpose?

[This message has been edited by SteveFehr (edited 08-31-2006).]

The easiest way to get my mind off of the trade is to.... ask me about my cats!