Sorry, this may have been asked before.
But, at what age did you start mucking around with basic Electrical stuff.
I'm not willing to start an argument here, but I reckon that us Guys that started on Crystal sets and Basic radio's had the wood on you "lamp and switch" guys!.
We might have needed the long-wire aerial, but we got something out of it, even if it was only AM!.
But, as far as the question goes, What on Earth made you get into Electricity?.

Wow does that bring back memories! Got a merit badge for radio and made a crystal set.
Wrapped a toilet paper tube with bare copper and had an open crystal with a sheet metal scratch "tuner". Had an aerial from my room window out to a tree. Had a radio shack electronics set after that and spent hours building "stuff". I had radios and speakers and wire running all over the place. In my late teens I got a job at an electrical and plumbing supply store. I realized I could make more money in a trade and started bugging every electrical contractor that came through the door. Finally got hired and I still remember my first few minutes on the job - My foreman handed me a receptacle and said "put that in" I gave him a blank look and he started laughing. He was a great mentor and friend. Taught me alot about the trade as well as life. Great memories! (My first code book was 76.) Thanks for letting me ramble.

For me it was at about the age of 3 or 4 in the early fifties when I asked how the TV got its picture. When my Dad told me it came through the air my curiosity took over my life to some degree.

Once in Basic Electronics class in the army I then understood how it worked. After a few years of radar troubleshooting and repair in the Army, it was an EE degree. From then on it was electronics as a career for life. A life that hopefully will go on for many more years yet.

Have a great day,
Doc

Mike,

I don't remember if I ever got anything other than static from my Crystal and "Cats' Whisker" set. But it was fun building ...


Bill

When I was a little kid, we moved to a different house and all the loose household items had moving tags with copper wires attached. I gathered a bunch of the tags, stacked them in a pile, straightened the copper wires, then inserted them into a receptacle.

I quickly learned a little bit about grounding, resistance, voltage and amperes a few cycles into 60 Hz. Mom put cold mustard on the burns. It took me a while to delve into electrical work again.

Building a router table, I wanted a long cord on the outside, a receptacle inside and a switch mounted through the side of the router table carcase so I could turn it on and off with ease. First I read two electrical books, then I put the electrical setup together in the router table, not paying enough attention to proper terminations. Popped the circuit breaker, then looked into it - I found that I had run the hot and the neutral to the two terminals on the switch! Dumb novice mistake! That was a learning experience.

I was just born with electricity in my veins. As a child in elementary school (1960's) all of my science fair projects involved low voltage lamps, motors, knife switches, bell wire and lantern batteries.

By age 10, I had graduated to repairing television sets. All there was back then was black & white sets, but most everybody had one. I would remove every vacuum tube from the set, carefully noting where they came from, take them all to the local department store's U-TEST-M machine and test them one at a time until I found the bad one. They all had specific part numbers on them and a catalog hung on the machine to cross the number over to the brand they sold. Almost every repair was a bad tube, a wire that had come loose or just a tuner that needed cleaning with an aerosol cleaner. People from all over the neighborhood brought their sets for repair. I probably worked on 1 or 2 sets a month.

The inside of a B&W television set is also where I first learned the function of a capacitor. I can remember to this day the surprise I received when I touched one in a set that had been unplugged for hours, only to receive a shock that knocked me to the ground. Thank God I was a lot closer to the ground back then. I've been dealing with electricity in one way, shape or form ever since.

I think my first real "spark" was probably when I took a cut appliance cord, plugged it in, and touched the phase and grounded conductors together... Scared me. Went and told my mother what I had done so she would have warning in case that big spark was also happening back behind the walls...

I don't even know where it began. Some of the earliest memories I have are of "taking things apart" which usually involved beating the mess out of them with a hammer until I could look at all the gizmos inside... I like to think I've gotten a little more tactful as the years have progressed....

I'm interested in how everything works. I just focus on electricity because it's the only one that was a big mystery (and still is, in a lot of ways ). If you take apart and engine and look at all the pieces carefully, it's usually pretty aparent how they're all supposed to work. But I could desolder every single component in a VCR and still have no clue in the world what they all did for each other.

-John

I had no interest in things electrical until I was about 28. I had been an auto mechanic until then.

I took a job as a maintainence man in a wire-making plant,and worked with a semi retired EE/electrician. He got me interested,I went to night school,and have been doing electrical/plumbing work for almost 22 yrs.

Russell

I have vivid memories at an early age of a “fluggling” incident.



Several editions of the ARRL Radio Amateur’s Handbook were a prime source of information through the years.

First looking through a copy of the 1971 NEC was strange and discouraging… {What in the world is “Electrical Metallic Tubing” and “Disconnecting Means”?}




[This message has been edited by Bjarney (edited 04-23-2004).]

My first memory of anything electrical was reaching into a 2" x 3" opening, and grabbing the piece of greenfield my dad was dangling down from the box above it.

I had little hands. I was about 3, and mom & dad were owners/rehabbers of a 2-flat in Chicago's uptown neighborhood.

Dad taught me how to do things "to code", since the City would conduct random inspections on DIY's back then, and it made sense to do it right the first time. Learned electrical, plumbing, and carpentry.

When I got my house in '96, found most of the old linen/rubber covered wiring was cracked near the ends in the boxes - so, since it was all RMC, I just hooked the new to the old and pulled. Read my dad's copy of "Electrical Wiring Simplified", and connected everything back up. Went from 4 circuits in the house to 12.

My old fire chief heard that I did wiring, and asked me to wire his garage. I kinda cringe at the work I did back then. All to Code, but a little unsure on workmanship.

Just started going from there. Opened a "handyman" business that "happened" to specialize in electrical - did it all to code, and learned more as I went. Did a few jobs, and eventually wound up working for a guy with a shop for a few months. Being former union, I learned about "work more, jaw less". Left him, then wound up with a buddy from another FD at my most current shop. Studied correspondence class, and that, along with time worked, got me into the City's Code exam. Passed with flying colors, got insurance, and here I am.

Some of the tools I have (and HAD - see theft post) belonged to dad, and I swear sometimes when I'm about to "F" up, I can hear dad saying "what do you thing you're doing?".

No one else would hire me. Still having that problem. Sure glad it's Friday. What a week! Is MacDonalds hiring?

My first encounter with electricity was when I was 7 and I took my first battery operated toy apart. Prior to that, I thought touching any wire, even unconnected, would electrocute me.
My first encounter with 120V was when I was 8. I had a small physics set that required a 9 volt battery for the motor. My dad never bought the battery, so I hooked the alligator clips to the prongs on a fan cord. The motor wasn't connected at the time. I went to go get some kool-aid and plugged the fan in so my mom wouldn't yell at me for havin the fan unplugged. Secons later, I heard POW! and saw a blue flash. I ran to my bed and cried, because I thought I'd be grounded. Turns out my dad didnt ground me. He explained what voltage and AC were.
When I was 11, I was indirectly shocked by lightning. It hit a pole about a half mile away. A spark jumped from the radiator to my knee and I fell over (I was watching the storm out the window)
My first experience with home wiring was at my dad's friend's house. Her husband, an electrical engineer with a masters, put grounded single pole switches in instead of 3 ways. She asked me to come check it because everytime she'd try to turn the light on, the breaker would shut off. He hooked one of the hots to the ground screw. Good thing the box was grounded as I was leaning against a radiator, and if it wasn't, the breaker wouldn't trip and I would have got quite a jolt.
I am now 19, an electrical engineering student at community college (Formerly at Penn State until my grades slipped and I lost financial aid). I mostly work with electronics and microprocessors. Hpwever, I live with a friend and I am rewiring his house. (I know, DIY! However, I have been doing it to code because I am well aware of the danger, and I have my neighbor, a retired electrician, take a look at everything. I don't want my work in the photo violations forum. The person who wired the house 25 years ago is now the inspector for Pittsburgh or Allegheny County or something. According to my neighbor and my own observations, there were many violations. His work was charity work, as he is my friend's uncle. However, he just wanted in and out as fast as possible. This last part was a bit off topic, but I didn't want chewed out for being a DIY .)

At the age of three, I bit into a phone cord. Have the scar inside my upper lip. It feels that I was destined to ply this trade.

Ick! Reminds me of the guys who used to strip wire with their teeth. I still wince when my brother-in-law opens beer bottle with 'em.

I've been told that somewhere around the age of 2-1/2 I grabbed a screwdriver from my father's hand while sitting on his lap as he wired a plug.

My first contact (literally! ) with 240V that I remember vividly was running over to "help mommy" unplug the vacuum cleaner, being unable to grasp the big plug properly in my small hands and then putting my fingers behind it to get a better grip before she could stop me. I remember it stung pretty good, and I guess I was lucky it was across fingers on the same hand. I was probably about 4 at the time.

Certainly I was playing with batteries and bulbs by the time I was around 5, and my interest (obsession?) just snowballed from there.

It was simple radios and amplifiers by the time I was 8, then onto all the old radios, TVs, tape recorders etc. that neighbors put my way after they discovered my growing hobby. This would have been around the mid 1970s by that time, and 1950s/60s domestic equipment was in plentiful supply as people turned out attics or put stuff in the church jumble sale. I acquired many old units that way!


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 06-20-2004).]

It seems that I always had a fascination with electricity. I remember way back when I was 6 or 7, wiring up a "loose" outlet with zip cord, plugging it in to see if it'd work, and at least once I recall sparks. I also remember wiring up a brass-shell Edison lamp socket on zip cord and messing around with it outside; a (probably) non-polarized plug and the brass lamp shell, combined with likely damp feet, made me respect electricity much more. MAN, DID I GET BIT (TWICE)!!! My dad never cared at all about me messing with electricity (maybe I wasn't such a good kid...!)

I was truly mesmerized by fluorescent lighting as a kid. Once, in grade school, our 4th-grade class was on the way to the auditorium where we were taught music appreciation. The "electricians" (custodians) were replacing the old triple-Saturn-ring incandescent fixtures (you know, the ones which were popular in the early-to-mid-50's that used those silver-bottomed 300W bulbs) with fluorescent ones just outside the auditorium in the lobby, and while the rest of the class headed in for music I decided to stop and watch the fluorescent lights going in. When class was over, the teacher saw me NOT in class (I valued my attendance very highly back then so this was extremely unusual!!) she just shook her head and mouthed the word "No!" and that was it.

Funny, though, I wound up being a surveyor instead; nonetheless, I still have a great interest and deep respect for electricity, the NEC and those in the electrical trade. More than once I seriously considered being an electrician and even talked to the state Labor & Industries folks in person about it some years ago but it never panned out in the public sector where I've been for 25-plus years now. Maybe as a second career? I can hear it now- "Hey, Alex! Bring your dentures over here so we can prep this MI cable!!!"

i started at about 5 too, with batteries and flashlight lamps. later disassembled radios, vcrs ect and tried to get something from the remnants running...

the first time i got badly psycho sparked was at about 6or 7 when screwing a E14 baset 15v christmas light bulb into an E14 230V socket and plugging in. the bulb blew, thank god i was not injured.

the first physically bang was years later, i guess when i was around 16. it smelled burning from outdoors, i stuck my nose into an un-used outlet to smell if it comes from there and got banged on MY NOSE because the outlet was totally wrong wired. 2 wires had been swapped and the GND was hot (The Schuko outlet has a touchable GND contact). Ouch, that one really kicked.

[This message has been edited by :andy: (edited 06-20-2004).]

I think I was 3 when I started to have an interest in electricity. I use to have these RadioShack electronics kits which would allow u to build radios, flashing LED circuits and many others. I was always excited for some appliance or electrical gadget in our house to break so i could take it apart. I also use to wire receptacles and lights in various combinations using old extension cords and the plug them in.

My first encounter with 120V was when I was 4 and I stuck a set of keys in on outlet ...
I was not shocked cause I stuck the first key in the neutral slot and the second in the hot... so the current went through the key ring and not me but the big blue flash still scared the @#$% out of me! My parents found out about this when they discovered the TV would not turn on!

Another bad incident I had was when I was in my teens... I was making a power supply to transform 120V AC to 6 and 12 V DC... but I wired the transformer backwards and when I plugged it in, it created a huge plume of black smoke and I immediately unplugged it!.. Instead of lowering the voltage to 12V i got something like 1400V instead. The transformer and everything was totally fried and it smelled like hell. The breaker never tripped tho. From then on I was much more careful with transformers.

This is a great thread!
As many of you have pointed out it really brings back a lot of memories.
My dad was an electrical contractor, so I naturally started at a pretty early age. He had one fellow as a foreman who delited in teasing "the boss's kid". Our company did skads of apartment complexes and we were sent to one of these projects. The foreman (John) assigned me to do air conditioner hookups. The units were on pads outside each apartment. I would go inside and turn off the breaker, then go back out and wire it up. Several units into the detail I was getting pretty confident and just sailing along, but when I started making the connections on this one it bit the blazes out of me. Shaken, I went back in to make sure I had turned the breaker off. Sure nuff, it was off, so I went back out to finish. BANG! Got me again! Man it hurt. I was really confused. Checked the brkr again. It was off. I was more careful now. Finished and moved on to the next one. Turned brkr off and went out to do my work. BANG! Burnt me again. But this time I heard some muffled laughing from inside the apartment.
I know you all have figured out what was happening. John was sneaking around behind me a turning the brkr back on, then laughing when I got zapped. Pretty funny, huh?
Glad he had his laugh, cause he spent YEARS paying for it!



[This message has been edited by Webmaster (edited 07-08-2004).]

Well... I have always taken things apart - much to the annoyance of family and friends!! Graduated onto regular things like changing plugs/fuses at about 7; we were always moving around the world ( dad was in the forces ) so everything was to change schuko>Brit>schuko...etc.

My first 'sparky job' was at prep school. Some plonker threw a shoe across the dormitory and hit the light switch - an old surface mount roundle. Out came the penknife and off came the cover; trouble was the base was shattered too. I nicked a switch out of an attic room and swapped it over live ...I was about 9. Just finishing when the master on duty saw the lights on and came in trough the bathroom door...jeez did I get a walloping!! When I think of all the potentials for major crises in that little escapade - I guess I deserved the cane

My first connection with 240V came not long after that at home. We had an old Rodgers valve amp / 'hi-fi' set that I used to blow pop music out on All the components were plugged into the back of the amp using the most _basic_ 2-pin plugs... One day I reached behind to unplug the deck without looking ... I remember to this day falling to the floor thinking "I'm too young...not yet". It scared the bejesus out of me and taught me a lifelong healthIER respect for 'leccy.

Compared to you guys, I am a late bloomer. I started when in my 20's. My 'EX' wife's father was the Chief Electrical inspector for our area. He invited me to join the industry and him and I became great friends .... his daughter and I parted ways, and him and I now own the electrical inspection company - go figure

Pierre

My parents told me they could keep me ammused for hours by putting me in my hichair and putting some plugs, sockets, and 3-ways on the tray. That is before I could remember much.

It all started with a good jolt while seeing what made my sisters easy bake oven work. Then I went on to navigation electronics on a Submarine (Fast Attack type). Then I went to production work and worked my way up into drafting and engineering. I love my job.

... I think I was about 8 or 9 when curiosity got the best of me,and I took one of my Moms bobby-pins and stuck it in the living room receptacle..I guess I've been a "sparky" ever since..
Russ

Hmmm,
It's interesting how many of the first times involve mom and getting lit-up. Mine was the same way. I was plugging in the vaccum. I was about 5, and I guess the plug was bad or I got my finger on the prong. The next thing I knew I was on the floor, across the hall.

rad74ss, which boat were you on. I was an EM on the Baton Rouge SSN-689

Big Ed,

I was on the USS Newport News SSN750. The last of the LA class with fair water planes. Fast and black out of Norfolk, VA.

I think I always liked to figure out how things worked, and then make them faster or stronger. When I was about 5 or 6, I had a battery operated model of the PT109, powered by 2 AA batteries - Wasn't fast enough for my taste, so first experiment was fitting it with D cell batteries, which did pick up some speed, but more drag due to the nearly sinking of the little boat. So I thought hmmmm wonder how fast the motor would go if I plugged the leads into a wall outlet? For probably just a fraction of a second, I'm sure it reached 'lightspeed' - then it blew apart with a great big flash and knocked me down...decision made to stay with the 'D' batteries for boat power in the bathtub.
Had further fascination with electrical stuff from messing about with the 'Prince of Darkness' Lucas electrical systems on my first car, a Triumph Herald. (thinks back to several fires of unknown origin while driving...)

Kenny-

Glad you didn't run an extension cord into the tub to power the '109...

extension cord?
yea, that'ld work...and would do wonders for your hair!

I broke a bulb on the xmas tree and wanted to get it replaced before I got caught,at 6 no body ever told me to unplug it. The trouble I would have got into would have been better

Let me think, several incidents got me interested in the sheer "power" of power... My dad was an electrical engineer for British Rail, so I had an interest in the complex diagrams he used to bring home (he actually did it so I could draw on the blank back, but you know kids ) First shocker so to speak was about age 8... I knew christmas tree lights were low voltage, so a non working set is only carrying a few volts right?... out with nail scissors, tidy up the tree... BANG Learned about 240 volt series connected christmas lights FAST!..it kinda grew from there, fewer bangs these days though

Those fairy lights!

It was far from my first ever shock (see above), but a chain of these was responsible for the worst shock I ever remember getting hit with. I was about 13 at the time, and had a holder disintegrate in my hands, leaving me with the wire which had come adrift from the center contact in one hand and the outer shell of the tiny screw base in the other.

240V hand-to-hand isn't fun!