The 2 wire thread got me remembering.
My grandmother must have had a 30amp 120volt service on her house. It was located on the wall inside the breakfast room. I can remember standing on a bench peering into the little wooden box with a glass door for long, long periods of time every time I went over. It had 2 knife switches and 2 fuses. Once mom caught me red handed with the door open. I had been told that the fuses would blow, and I wanted to feel the wind from them. Grandmother moved when I was 8 yrs. old, so I must have been real young.

Were you guys somewhat preoccupied with electricity as kids? What caused you to pick electricianing? Has it always seemed simpler for you to understand electricity than it seems for others?


[This message has been edited by electure (edited 08-24-2001).]

I climbed halfway up a pole on the next block once and looked over to see my Dad looking out the Bedroom window at me from our house. I seem to recall an uncomfortable time sitting that nite

Bill

I got my start fairly young when my Dad added a room to our house. An electrician friend explained to him what needed to be done & I helped him put in the wiring. The house is still standing 40+ years later, so we did OK. I remember being totally fascinated by this project.

BTW, the house was served by a 30 amp 120 volt service.

Tom

Not born this way, started an early apprenticeship. I've got a scar on the inside of my mouth from biting an extention cord when I was 2 years old.

Hooked up an old extension cord with the female end cut off to a 6V DC motor and plugged it in... (I was about 9 or 10) and it buzzed for half a second before it Popped a neat little explosion... Sparks and noise... I think I was hooked then (mainly cause I didn't get hurt... I was just even more curious although it did scare me...)

I've since learned that I must have a high threshold (resistance?) to electricity, my hands are usually dry, and even a hit from 240V (hand wrapped around a 250V recept while tightening the ground screw and the &^*% mech turns the CB's on...) only resulted in me rapidly dropping the work and cursing alot... No burns... nothing...
(I've heard of folks getting thrown several feet by 240V!)

I'm still very careful around "hot" devices, etc. but I feel that my "high skin resistance" is a definite virtue for our work.

I became interested several years ago when I was a Stage technician ('electrician'), and was asked to wire up some submersible ACL's (aircraft landing lights) that were to be submerged in a fountain onstage. decided I'd better learn a little more about the subject-been hooked ever since. Incidentally, the term "gaffer"-a film term, not a live stage one, comes from the early days of theatre, when lighting was provided by gas-the 'electrician' was a Gas-Fitter, hence the term.

I've always been fascinated by everything electrical and electronic as far back as I can remember, an interest I inherited from my father.

I was playing around with batteries, bulbs and bits of wire at the age of 5, which would have been 1971. I remember helping dad route cables when he rewired a house we moved to at about the same time, an I too was fascinated by the wiring in my grandarents house.

This wss an old Victorian house in north London, and although parts had been modernized, it still had some switchgear dating from the 1920s/1930s, including an old lighting fuse-box in a polished wood case with a glass panel covering the big porcelain fuses.

I don't know about you guys, but I've always been a radio & electronics enthusiast as well. I remember getting some books from the library and building some simple transistor radios and amplifiers when I was about 8, and by that time I was often helping dad with his projects.

Friends & neighbors knew of my interest, so we always got given old unwanted equipment like tape recorders, radios, etc, Jumble sales in the 1970s also provided a lot of older valve (vacuum tube) equipment cheaply, and by that time my parents figured I knew enough about safety to be let loose with the higher voltages.

By the way, my first experience of how forceful electricity can be was at the age of 4 when I went to "help mommy" unplug her vacuum cleaner. Before she ould stop me, I had the plug part way out, but then put my little fingers behind it to get a better grip - straight across 240V. Ouch!

It's true I guess...
I was the kid that made one good bike out of 2 trashed ones. then did variations like the'upside down bike' where the gears are 3' up, and the seat 5'.( This progessed to automotive abominations and subsequent court dates..oh well....) I dragged home everything and field dressed it, learnin' the hard way how things like capacitors work.

I've always been good with my hands, I would like the grey matter to follow suit...

Well, I guess I was. Ehh maybe this story is better off not made public LOL. Sorry for the delete

Matt



[This message has been edited by Matt M (edited 08-25-2001).]

I didn't know it at the time I made the decision to become involved with electricity, but it seems I came from a long line of electricial related people.

My dad's mom worked as office manager for my dad's local REA company, way back before I was born (pre 1953).

My dad worked for various utilites, ending up at the last one, which was called Centel. He retired after 32 1/2 years with them.

I started messing around with electricity mainly by tearing apart old radios, tvs etc... at a youge age. In sixth grade I won the local grade school science fair with an electrical magnet.

I have been in the field for about 28 years now. Worked my way up from an electrician's helper at the local VA hospital, where I finally realized that I needed to get my licence. Worked for a local shop, getting my residential wireman's licence, then my journyman's licence. Went to work for another shop, where I finally got my Master's licence. Was offered a job with the local city government, as their electrician and as a back up inspector. How could I refuse, with the type of benifits they offered? Been with them for over 15 years now, where I have been the chief inspector for almost 10 years.

A little story about my dad. At one time, when he was still alive and working for the electrical utility, my older brother also worked there, but in the generation plant. I was working as journyman, wiring houses. There was a time I could say that my brother generated the electricity that my dad transmitted to a house, where I would put it to work. Pretty cool, huh?

Another little story. My youngest son, who does not seem to want to work in the trade, stuck my keys into an outlet when he was about 2 years old. Buzz-Zap. Boy did he run, right over to me and up into my lap. If the previous posts are any indication, he may come around and want to work in our field after all.

Oh, by the way, my oldest son did go into our field, receiving his Master's licence last year. So, in reality, he is the 4th generation Miell to work in the electrical field.

Enough musing, guys. Keep up the great posts on this, and other sites.

Rick Miell

Awwww..Shoot! I'm not a gaffer then....

Thanks for clearing that up! (I think electure, dspark and others were too nice to burst my bubble! )...

When I was a kid, My Dad was a pack rat. One part of the barn was filled with anything you could think of including electrical items. (mostly old stuff) This was a paradise for us young kids. I remember rigging things up to see how they work. An old light socket and a cord taken from an old appliance and I had made my first working lamp. Next step was to add a switch. After tripping a few breakers I had that perfected. I also recall opening a main panel and seeing the ground and the grounded conductor bonded I decided these 2 conductors do the same thing and therefore it should not matter how I hook them to a recep. This resulted In a few improperly wired devices around home till I was set straight on that subject.
Electricity always held a fasination for me and still does. I have since taken some courses and am working in the field as a maintenance electrician. I still love experimenting with rigging up various types of controls etc. but now I do it with proper procedures and safety in mind.

Thanks for clearing that up! (I think electure, dspark and others were too nice to burst my bubble! )...

'66...
I followed your adventures at the full moon festival...oh, that even 10% of the "electricians' were 10% as concientious about outdoor remote venues as you were, although, your experience and knowledge kind of made it a little more complex than it needed to be. i.e. Rule #1 about (many) sound guys: They're deaf anyways...(!)
Some "Gaffers" could only have the term applied to them by the number of gaffes they make on a job

[This message has been edited by mickky (edited 08-25-2001).]

[This message has been edited by mickky (edited 08-26-2001).]

My grand-dad was a maintenance electrician at a large factory in Indianapolis, and sometimes on Saturdays (when he could sneak me in) I got to go with him and watch and hand tools to him. He told me my family watched one time (from a distance) as I climbed up on the kitchen table to stick a skeleton key into a receptacle there. It knocked me off the table, and before my folks realized what I was doing, I climbed back up and did it again. Grand-dad said I was "practicin". I was probably two at the time.
I got into the apprenticeship right out of high school, and ten years ago I received my Master's License.

Pauluk, my grand-dad also got me interested early in about everything electrical/electronic. He brought me books on Faraday, Edison, Morse, Bell, and others, as well as working parts from his factory that was replaced during maintenance work.

He would have loved computers. Probably would have had to drag him away from one for dinner...

Virgil, About 20 yrs ago I lived next door to a Gaffer for one of the major studios.
Some of his accomplishments include:
...Putting quartz light on end of 20' of 1/2" GRC, standing it up in back yard, and pouring concrete for a base. Great 'til the lamp burned out. No way to change it.
...Built very nice doghouse on driveway, couldn't find tape measure, so used a level to measure. Driveway was sloped, so was doghouse when he put it in the yard.
...Emptied aboveground pool by taking the side off. Flooded house through open patio door. Next year, not wanting to repeat this, closed glass sliding door,took side off pool. Water blew out sliding door, shattered glass went everywhere, flooded house. His wife ran off with the neighbor's gardener shortly thereafter.

I'm sure they're not all like this, but with your multitudes of talents and accomplishments, I wouldn't sweat the loss of the title gaffer Most gaffing I've seen is done by deckhands on fishing boats.

PS I think DSpark and myself are 2 of the last guys you'd find blowing smoke up your *** just to be nice. I'm a true believer in your skills, or I wouldn't say so.



[This message has been edited by electure (edited 08-26-2001).]

Thanks Scott...

I wouldn't be half the electrician I am without y'all here at ECN to "hold my hand" through some of this stuff!

(Boy I hope Bill doesn't get the idea to start charging for this!?!?)

The fellow dating my oldest sister helped my curiosity, he took time to expain what he knew, and I "helped" him put together a heathkit clock/radio. "We" built a jacob's ladder and he had one of the first LCD watches ever made... It had obviously handmade 7 section displays and the "backlight" was discoverd to make a geiger counter tick like a pair of maracas!... he quit wearing it...

He now works for a fire alarm company and is an apprentice electrician... Ironic, huhn! Not only that, but his boss and company owner is a journeyman, so his time doesn't count and he'll never be able to take his journeyman's test as long as he works there! This guy was my mentor! Other than Mr. Hixson, he was the one most responsible for my career! Wow... what a strange world...

Also, the same guy got me into cars and motorbikes... a real "big brother"... He was very patient with the annoying little boy with all the questions when what he really wanted was to be alone with my sister! That doesn't go unnoticed... A very influential man... (Thanks Larry...)




[This message has been edited by sparky66wv (edited 08-26-2001).]

Was that the guy who wired the Organ Cave Tourist area? Same setup... the original bulbs cycling on and off... No one wants to carry scaffolding into a cave!

It may have been fixed by the new owners, there were scores of other problems too...

I got started at 7 years old. My grandfather was a union electrical contractor starting the business in 1920. Three of my uncles were union electricians. Saturday mornings as a little kid my grandfather would take me with him on residential jobs and have me install swiches and plugs. At the age of 19 I became an apprentice in the local, but by this time I also had many years of electrical training behind me. I was a 1st apprentice and foreman on several small commercial projects for my grandfathers firm. I was followed into the local by 5 of my cousins.

My husband and I decided to build our house ourselves paycheck to paycheck on weekends.When I found out how much an Electrician was going to charge to come out and wire it I decided to go back to college. Since we were not in a hurry I had plenty of time to take the 2 year course then the code class. Word got around and I started getting jobs, then I started working for a GC. After 5 years I took and passed my Contractor's exam. Our house is done and here I am, a grandmother, crawling around in attics and crawl spaces, fighting off spiders. I definately wasn't born to do this but I love it. I live way out in the hills and get a lot of very interesting jobs. No two the same and never boring!