I think my first experience working with 480 volts was at a Strammit plant.  A Strammit plant would cram straw under high pressure between two sheets of asbestos.  Though for awhile the product had popularity, it cannot be used today.  Probably there are few people who have ever heard of Strammit.

Another electrician and I were sent out to the Strammit plant.  I don’t believe either of us realized how dangerous 480 volts can be.  The location where we were to work on one of the circuits was across the building from the panel location.  We determined which circuit we were going to be working on and shut it off.

As we were working, we accidentally touched two wires together.  Doing so caused a huge, unexpected arc.  The other fellow went back to the panel and discovered that after we shut off the breaker to the circuit, someone had turned it back on.  Boy! Did he read those people the riot act!

We learned a valuable lesson that day.  If you are working on a circuit, control the environment by putting a padlock on the breaker in the off position, open up the panel board and disconnect the wiring to the circuit, or even hang a big sign on it.  Today that particular circumstance has all kinds of safety measures to adhere to.  I support all of them.

My last experience with high voltage was at the Spokane Airport where we were assigned to change the oil in two big transfer switches.  The two switches we were working on ran the whole airport.  For planned redundancy, the power at the airport came in from two different power sources.  If the power went down on one source it could be switched to the other, so that energy is always available.

Today, the oil used in those transfer switches has been outlawed because of environmental pollution.

I wonder how many of those transfer switches and transformers in the country, using that particular oil, have never had their oil replaced.

When I talk of high voltage, I generally mean 480 to 50,000 volts.  Some construction sites, like dam building, generally use 480 volts for all of their electrically powered tools like electric saws, hammers, etc.  At 480 volts this equipment runs very smooth and even.

Most commercial and industrial buildings will use 480 volts.  However, higher voltage means higher danger and more rules.

While working with 120 – 240 volts I have probably been “bit” 100 times.  After 70 years and more, I still survive, but I have heard many horror stories about high voltage.  I recall one story one of my relatives told me.

He was an apprentice working with an old experienced journeyman.  There were two high voltage cables running through an underground cement tunnel.  One cable was dead, the other one live.  Their job (should they choose to accept it) was to cut out the dead cable and leave the other one running.

The cables traveled down the tunnel, went out through the concrete side of the tunnel, and reappeared back through the tunnel walls further on.

Not having the equipment we have today, they could not determine which cable was alive and which was dead.  After much tracing  of the circuitry and wire routing, and making “educated guesses”, they proceeded with the task.

The journeyman got a great big cable cutter out and told the apprentice; “You go back up the tunnel and around the corner.  If you hear a loud explosion and see a bright flash you run out of the tunnel as fast as you can go.  It will be too late for me.”

The apprentice did as he was instructed and the journeyman cut the cable.

It was the correct one, so nothing happened.

I sometimes wonder if this had anything to do with the apprentice leaving the electrical trade and getting into something else.

Stay tuned for more.

Electricians inherently work in dangerous situations with a high probability of dangerous outcomes.  You would think an electrician would know enough to stay sober while on the job.  One slip and you could have a mountain of a mess on your hands.

Some guys would amaze me with how much they drank on the job and were still alive.

One fellow I worked with in Montana was pretty heavy on the bottle.  I don’t know why the boss kept him on but he was a pain to the rest of us.  One time he was working on a job and the boss sent me down to help him out.

When I got to his job, he was going to pull wire.  However contrary to common sense he had pulled all the wire off of the wire reels.  It was in one big mess in the center of the floor, with him in the center of the mess, like a bird in the middle of a huge nest.

He was of the opinion that he could handle it, and sent me down to the other end of the run to pull the wire.  His plan was to untangle and feed the wire as I pulled it.  We would pull about 4 feet of wire and then have to stop while he untangled more.  Finally I suggested that I go work on other things while he worked on untangling all of the wire.

About 4 hours later he came and told me he was ready.  It took us about ½ hour to pull the whole run.  After that I tried to avoid working with him because I didn’t know what kind of mess he would get into.

In the Electrical Union drinking on the job was one ground to fire a man immediately.  A foreman and a superintendant had to observe the man drinking alcohol on the job.

One time there were about a dozen of us electricians working on a job with one heavy boozer.  Every few hours he would disappear for a short time and reappear fully loaded.  The foreman approached a couple of us and told us to watch where he went when he disappeared.

After a time we saw him crawl up into the attic space and into a dark corner where he got his re-blast.  We informed the foreman and he went and got the superintendant.  They got a powerful light and caught him red handed.  Or should I say red faced.  He was gone within the hour.