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Dang, trying to find a lose ground when it's still in the split bolt inside the breaker box and isn't making contact is interesting.
Takes me back to 1949 over the Pacific when the left engine started cutting out intermittently.
Way the doors are made on the C117 they couldn't be opened when in the air as they opened outward. Air flowing against the door you know. Had to break out a window over the wing and crawl out to the engine cowling. When I popped the last lock there was no way I could hold onto the cowling. I let it go or else it would have dragged me off the wing. Lucky the bottom half of the cowling was still locked on. I crawled down inside between it and the engine and started checking why the engine was misfiring. One of the magnetos had shorted out and was pulling all the juice off the other mag. I didn't have any side cutters so I did the only thing I could. I put the wires between my teeth and bit them in two.
Shocking experience I tell you. Knocked me out. Captain Jack Brightly flew the plane on into Guam. When they pulled me out of the cowling they dosed me down with a fire hose. When I awoke they held a Captain's Mast right there on the runway. I was charged with destruction of government property, breaking the window and losing the cowling. Abandoning my duty post because I left the airplane while it was still in operation and being Awol. I was never issued a pass to leave the plane.
Right then I was discharged from the Navy. Because I was no longer Navy they took my uniform off me right there. I was lucky my unmentionables weren't Navy issue or I probably would have been totally naked. Since I was no longer Navy I was illegally trespassing on a Naval Air Base as I wasn't issued a pass at the gate. The MPs were called, I was marched to the gate and told to never come back or I would spend time in the brig not a civilian jail.
Not having any clothes besides my unmentionables wasn't that much of a problem. Guam, remember. I was there for a couple more days entertaining the sailors and visitors in the local watering hole while receiving free meals and drinks. Kinda made me ask why I signed up for the Navy in the first place? Finally received and offer to fly back to the states with Senator Hardwick, a Democrat from New Josie. Took me longer than that trip back to understand he was saying New Jersey. Those easterners talk funny. I'd swear they put a handful of dried corn in their mouth before they try to speak. Something my cousin Betty Lou and I used to do when we were kids and we'd tell our parents we had the mumps to get out of going to school. Didn't work. Our parents tried that same trick on their parents when they were kids.
Anyway, I didn't need to do any favors for the Senator on the flight back. I supplied him with enough of his own alcohol he was zoned out all the way. I'm sure I didn't kill the man. I mean, all politicians look kinda pasty. Wusan't allowed off the plane until we landed in New Josey even with a couple stops in between. Even the pilots talked funny like that senator guy. Before I left the airport I was offered a dozen rides by guys going by. Accepted one to a truck stop. Again no favors for the lift. What is it about men thinking a gal running around in her unmentionables is some sort of prostitute. Yeah, I know what that means. Paid him off with a bottle from the Senator's stash. I had liberated it along with several other bottles in the Senator's hand bag marked Top Secret. Yeah, I learned in the Navy to never steal anything. We liberate it. I guess the Senator didn't want anyone to know he carried a refresher everywhere he went.
At the truck stop I was offered thirty or forty rides. Some of them truckers sure were frisky and bragged up the accommodations in their great big ol Peter...., built. Found a truck driver hauling a government hot load to Area 51. I think that's in Oregon? He made it back to Oklahoma faster than most of them planes do I believe. I guess government does okay by some people. I kinda lost a little bit of respect when I was removed of my clothes and abandoned in Guam. I wonder what the Air Force is like? I only joined the Navy so I didn't have to chop or pick any more cotton. Maybe the Marines could use one more Good Gal?
What brought all the memories back? Well my AC, that's air conditioner, has been kinda spasmodic this spring just like the engine on that ol airplane. I'd spent a couple hours previously looking for the problem thinking a transformer had took a lightening surge. Problem with that is they are either there or they isn't. No halfway. And then it began working again after I had checked all the wiring in the breaker boxes. There are three between the meter and the AC. Today the AC decided to take another vacation and it's climbing up close to a hundred in the house. Kinda hard to figure out why one electrical leg is reading one twenty and the other is reading two forty when both are supposed to be one twenty. Not hard to understand. One leg is feeding over using the other leg as a ground when no ground is tied in. The elec meter didn't help as all the readings on both hots and ground were good except for the excess volts. Time for hands on. Started wiggling wires and the ground was completely lose inside the split bolt. Going to be interesting sticking my hands inside a hot breaker box and pulling wires together again. Oh well isn't the first time I had a shocking experience.
Have I told you about the time I was working on a main feeder line carrying four hundred and forty volts? It didn't melt "all" of the screwdriver I had in my hands. The explosion was impressive. The cowards around me ran for cover. Big brave men. It was in the summer of....,
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Read the first sentence
Read the first sentence wondering if this was real or a story, got to the end still not sure, you know what they say a story is never as funny as real life. lol
Right!
I Triple Dog Dare you to stand in front of the mirror, with your eyes open, and say that with a straight face,,,. That's what I thought, you can't do it. Nice try sweet heart but you forgot, I'm the one selling ocean front property in Oklahoma. Mayhaps you would want your own parcel? Meet me Red Dog Saloon, midnight bring gold or silver and the deed is yours.
No one stands a chance after the first liar tells her story.
hugs hon
Barb
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Some are
I chuckled after reading the story. Some shocks are worse than others. 480 and 277 are some nasty voltages but the worst shock I ever got while working as an electrician was from the neutral on a 120 circuit. When I woke up, I found that I was sitting on the floor about 10 feet from where I had been sitting on a stool doing the work.
Uncle Henry
He never turned off the electricity. Told me it wasn't necessary as one doesn't grab hot and ground at the same time. Yes call me old fashion, The wires were hot and ground, only two wires.
One of the most beautiful girls I was ever blessed to know was an electrician. She loved her two wheels. If anyone told me they thought that girl wasn't GG I would have called them a liar. The judge didn't believe her when she asked for a name and gender change. We shared a lot of emails and job data after she moved to CA. All at once everything stopped coming from her. I tried for months to get hold of her. Finally decided those damn wheels she loved failed her. I miss too many. Sometimes one lives too long themselves. It's been one hell of a ride.
Hugs hon
Barb
Life is a gift. Treasure it.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Funny
how people like to play with electricity. At college had a friend who had a cut off electrical cord with stripped ends. He would bet anyone that they couldn't hold onto the wires and sing through Popeye the Sailor Man. From my understanding, no one ever made it through all the way.
Hugs!
Rosemary
Some honestly don't feel it.
Mr. Golden owned a pinball, jukebox business and insanely worked on his own equipment. Everyone who has got "locked" into a short understands the muscles contract. Impossible to open the hand and turn lose. Some of us that's a lesson we learned more than once. The intelligent ones tap the equipment with the back of their hand. If it's still hot it will knock the hand away. Doesn't always work. More personal experience.
Anyway back on track here. Mr. Golden had his hands inside on of the pinball machines and it locked him up. He got on top of it with his knees and pried himself lose and went right back to working on it. He couldn't feel electricity even though it worked on him like all the rest of us mortals. God made some strange people.
hugs hon, stay away from those who seem to have a light behind their eyes. That's not intelligence shinning through. It's the after glow from burn out.
Have I told the story about working on an oil field power station? They have these control box cars where all the power is routed in and out. Well it was a few years back...,
always
Barb
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Don't I know it.
Back in my younger days I taught professional driving. Some of my students thought they knew better than me. Had one kid who thought he could take my double flatbeds with 105,000 lbs down Snoqualmie pass into Seattle way faster than I told him to. When he finally got my equipment stopped (my brakes we're smoking) I noticed he was looking very white. When I asked him if he'd be okay, he replied that as soon as he got his hands released from the wheel he'd be fine. I then asked, so what are you gonna do if I tell you to slow down from now on. In a very quiet voice he barely got out, "slow down."
"Good answer, " I replied.
In my experience, that fire behind the eyes is likely to be quenched by the water on the brain.
As far as not feeling it, my grandpa was a beekeeper for many years. I worked them with his as a kid, and it never ceased to amaze me. If one stung him (a very rare occurrence) he'd just brush it away. If he had a twinge of arthritis, he'd have one sting him on the affected joint and it would go away.
Hugs!
Rosemary
Frankly
I found your story jolting. It was too amped up. But, at least it was not reVOLTing. Well, maybe it was since I don't have the capacitor for understanding watt it was about, or maybe I couldn't resistor reading it because it was a Barbie Lee story. All I know is that I just wanted to be current.
Still, after a careful read of your JUKEy story, I realize that I am out of seriously out of PHASE with it. And that really Hertz!
Maybe if I meditated on it, I will understand it better. Ohmmmmm. Ohmmmmm.
Loved it. Thanks for the laugh,
AuP
P. S. That A and B leg master panel joke had me drop on the floor laughing my fool head off.
Shocking
It is shocking that you would write such a story!
Some are more unwired than others
ROFLMAO..., hon back away from the charger, i believe you plugged into the wrong volts and got a little juiced up BEFORE you made it out to the Red Dog Saloon.
My god that was so creative and expressive. I loved it!
hugs hon, and stay away from elec. from now. When one smells burning hair and it's their own, it's time to turn lose of the wires.
always
Barb
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Sooo
What you are telling me is to diode it down.
Sniff, sniff, not fair since you are a more wonderful and POWERful transistor than I am!
Beaucoup hugs and champagne dreams,
AuP
P. S. Damn it! Where are my plans for my ravishingly new Gonculator!!! The German one, too. You know, the Lutz diagram. I can't wait to plug it in.
In the breaker box?
Pull the watt-hour meter.
Illegal
In many if not most areas in the US it is illegal for any one other than the electric company, a master electrician or the fire department to pull the meter. It is sealed and if found tampered with, it is assumed that the person has been stealing power.
Use to do that once up a time
I was cured of that trick when I pulled the meter on a commercial job site. Digital meters hadn't been out very long and I had never run across one. All the data for elec flow was inside that meter. In the meantime along with those brand new digital meters a law was passed. A thousand dollar fine for pulling one. Off and on I had been working with PSO for over fifteen years by that time. When I pulled a meter I would call them, tell them which meter I pulled and they could retag it with a safety clip. I called and told them what I had done. They had to go back into history on that line to rebuild all the lost data. I now call them before I pull a meter so they can download the data from it. Usually it's easier to work on a hot box than go through all that now. No longer active in any business besides farming, it's kinda irrelevant now.
Why the digital meters? People were pulling their meter, turning them upside down and letting the meter run backwards for a couple weeks before putting them back in the right way. Digital squak back home if they been pulled.
Hugs hon, life is interesting if one doesn't take it seriously
Barb
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
You Yust Never Know!
My bother's father-in-law was a math professor at conservative Concordia College. He was the official spokesperson for Casper Milquetoast.
After he died, my brother discovered that his father-in-law had taken 95% of the power used in his house around the meter, thereby "saving" many thousands of dollars.
In all other aspects of his life, as far as we know, the man was above reproach.
I can't imagine why your story hasn't been made into a movie.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Not hard to understand
Don't think they are still doing Ripley Believe it or Not. However I have it on good authority Angela Rasch, Bru, Samantha, and several other names not mentioned have been tossed back and forth across the screen test studios. The director(s) are running into problems with the big wheels not believing they are true life stories. Disney was approached and their bean counters came back with a counter offer. Possible if all the unbelievable parts were cut out. They had contacted FBI, CIA, IRS, NSA, NASA along with every overseas agency including MI6 asking about the girls the story board was wrote up about. It seems the agencies to the last one hung up as soon as names started getting mentioned.
I knew all you girls were in deep but exactly how deep?
Hugs sweety, now about that last gown you wore to the Illinois Gov Ball? Who was tall dark handsome on your arm all night? Curious, was he there to protect you or take advantage of you?
Barb
Life is a gift. Treasure it.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
In the breaker box?
Pull the watt-hour meter.
This made me laugh Thanks
One of the things we had to do as an apprentice engineer was have the resistance between our hands measured. The higher the resistance the better. I had the highest in the class. Two people were told 'never touch anything electrical. your resistance is so low that even quite modest voltages will kill you'. (V=IR and all that jazz).
I was able to hold a 110v AC supply (very low current before it tripped out). Madness to do that these days but Hinder & Stop was not so anal back in '69.
A rew years later, I did get a real jolt when the Hawker Hunter that I was working on was powered up despite red tags everywhere. 115v@400Hz was not nice. Thankfully it was the middle of winter so my hands were decidely not sweaty. The numpty who had connected the GPS (Ground Power Supply) and powered up the aircraft was escorted off the airfield less than an hour later. I later found out that said Numpty was colourblind so red tags meant nothing to him.
One Professor at my Polytechnic said, 'Mechanical Engineers are Electrical Engineers who failed to realise that you can't see electrons moving along a wire'. There is some truth in that. Claude (who appears in one of my stories) was a wizzard when it came to mechanical things but he'd run a mile before having anything to do with electrics.
Samantha
Great story Barb!
Reminds me of the tall tales my grandpa used to sit and tell us when we were kids, had me chuckling all the way through it.
We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
Tail Standing Tall
Right, this time you really got me. Not the story I was expecting. All the way to the last line I was looking for something else :) Nice one.
Auprevenier already, mostly, exhausted the electrical puns (and us) when it comes to the English language. . Another good one (directed to Auprevinier this time. I know some good ones in other languages but don't think the audience would appreciate that. And - I disagree with Barb, your bra isn't unwired.
Personally I'm rather careful around all practical applications of electrickery. One summer I worked doing high-voltage testing of quite substantial cables. When isolation fails at some 140 kV you get quite a bang. I also learnt that apparently the only way to keep ants away in the Syrian desert (this was a very long time ago) is to enclose the conductors in lead. Those cable drums were Heavy.
So many puns in the comments here. I can only say: Oh God ,lets meet at the Red Doogh Saloon. As you see I'm easy to persuade, I really have low resistance (as opposed to Samantha). When last I measured hand-hand it was only 500 ohm.
Then there was this time....
It was 10:00 hrs when I was called into the NCO's office (non commissioned officer). Apparently he was still a bit upset that I had taken him for $400 in a supposedly 'illegal' poker game in the barracks, and to officially accuse me of anything would put his on involvement up for display.... So, he decided to give me a chore... Preventive maintenance checks on three deuce and a half trucks, and when I was finished, I could go to lunch.
Mind you, that to do a 'proper' PM check on a single truck takes approximately 3 hours, and it being late in the fall would mean that I would still be doing the third check after the sun had set, in a parking area with zero lighting...meaning I would have to spend the night in one of the trucks waiting for sunrise, and not having had anything to eat.
Being not the dimmest bulb in the box, I smelled a rat. This guy has been doing things for a couple years trying to get me to do something stupid...like go AWOL.... So, I took the last inspection lists on the three trucks, and checked the specific items on those lists. Scribbled A signature (not discernible as my own) on the 'completed' inspections and filed them; then went to lunch, only an hour late.
As I expected, I was called into the office again; this time there were witnesses. On the desk in front of me were the three inspection papers. The NCO demanded of me, "Is this your signature?" Calmly I met his eyes and asked, "does it look like mine?", as I pulled my official ID out to compare the signatures. Since the signatures weren't even close, he ordered me to sign them, again; which I did, adding below each signature the Idiom 'By Dir', which indicated that I had been ordered to sign the documents, and responsibility now falls upon the person issuing the order. That was when the NCO sprung his trap, informing me that he was having me charged with falsification of government documents.
He didn't know that his trap, when sprung, would also trigger my own. I simply stated "Request Mast, President of the United States". There were no witnesses to my original scribblings, but there were to my being ordered to sign, and the request mast appeal meant that they would have to arrange for me to meet with my entire chain of command, all the way up to the president, within 72 hours. And the only thing that there was witness testimony to? Him issuing the order to sign.
Moral of the story?
If people you are handing your life over to,(military, corporation, etc) hand you a rule book... LEARN it better than they do.
Not so extremely...
... explicit. I've written more-so. Even here.
"Wusan't allowed off the plane until we landed..." -- my mind momentarily stopped there, before realizing that further words followed. You weren't allowed to pull the trick you did in the Navy.
"The cowards around me ran for cover." Discretion is the better part of valor, and a certain cowardice is a good idea when working with electricity. Granted, one can be too much of a coward. I think that I managed once to work up the nerve to grab the two terminals of a car battery with both hands.
-- Daphne Xu (a page of contents)
Pulling the Meter
Some meters have a shunt in the socket that keeps the load side hot when the meter is out. Not many of those in Oregon, except possibly Medical Facilities? When I was still working in Oregon, I just pulled the unshunted meter if I needed to avoid a live panel. Rules be damned. Electricity terrified me. Being very cautious is perhaps how I lived to retire.
Gwen