Changing electrical advancements have included changes in the way cash registers work.  In fact, I am unsure if “cash register” is still an accurate description of the modern version of determining your bill at the check-out counter.  Maybe it’s no longer called the check-out counter anymore, either.

The old style cash register could pretty much be placed on a counter at any given spot and used as it was.  As the cash registers became electronically controlled, wiring and grounding became necessary – limiting their movement from where they were installed.  When bar code scanners were introduced the grounding requirements became more involved.

For the bar code scanners we had to run new circuits that would not pick up any stray currents that would interfere with the working of the scanners.

In one installation, the location of the scanner was 60 feet away from the circuit source.  The store was already in existence and was sitting on a concrete slab.  Since there was no basement, I could not run a ground wire underneath the floor.

I drilled a hole through the concrete slab and then drove a ground rod down to floor level.  I had no idea if there were any man-made and/or installed impediments below.  I was hoping that I would not “interdict” any gas lines, water lines, sewer lines, etc. with my ground rod.

I wondered why they couldn’t make a better system of wiring within the scanner itself so that the external grounding would not be necessary.  As usual with all of my good ideas, within a few years the manufacturers of the bar code scanners had done just that.

Of course, that necessitated replacement of all of the old scanners.  I guess you sell more equipment that way.   If you remember back a few of these blogs – (well more than a “few”) – that’s what happened with the bowling pin setter machines.

As the saying goes; “That’s the cost of progress.”

I have in my office an early vestige of such progress.  In wiring hotel rooms in the area, I saw how wiring operations have changed over the years.  Hanging in some rooms there used to be a sign indicating the progress of electrical technology.  The sample I have reads:

“This room is equipped with Edison Electric Light.  Do not attempt to light with match.  Simply turn key on wall by the door.  The use of Electricity for lighting is in no way harmful to health, nor does it affect the soundness of sleep.”

There are three ways to conduct electrical current from one point to another.

1. Under the ground through wires.

2. Overhead on poles through wires.

3. Through the air – with no wires

As radical as number three sounds, it is used today – sometimes with increasing regularity.  However at this time lightning is not controlled by humans.

I have always wondered why it isn’t possible to use the electricity produced by lightning.

You can use running water to produce electricity, and you can use electricity to provide running water.

You can use blowing wind to produce electricity, and you can use electricity to provide air movement.

You can use electricity to produce heat, and you can use heat to produce electricity.

Why not lightning?

Science has established that in a lightning storm, lightning rises from the earth to meet the lightning descending from the sky.  Therefore, evidently, there is electricity in the earth.  That brings all kinds of possibilities to mind.

For instance, when you park your car in the summer with all the windows up, the interior of the car soon becomes unbearably hot.  Between the hot upholstery and the super hot steering wheel I’ve been scalded numerous times.

Why not install an interior automobile system in a car for summer time heat.  When the summer time temperature in the car rises higher than the outside ambient air (and you would ONLY want this to operate in the summer), a generator powered by heat and ground effect electricity, could operate a series of small fans to bring outside, cooling air into the car to equal, or be less than, the outside temperature.

Voila!  Another problem solved.

I have replaced many poles for electrical reasons.  Most of the time, it took more than one person to do the job.  We would remove the meter, wiring, light fixture, grounding, etc. from the pole.  Then a crane would come in to lift the old pole out and drop in a new pole in the existing hole.  Then the meter, wiring, fixture, and all the rest would be reattached.

This was usually a whole day job for two men and a crane operator.

One time I was sent to replace a pole by myself.  I transported the new pole on my ’48 Ford flatbed pickup truck.  The large end was at the back of the pickup bed and the top end of the pole was angled up over the cab of the pickup.  Allow me to interject here, a short description of my pickup.  Along the back of the cab and sticking up over it I had a rack with round “stakes”.  These stakes were spaced along the length of the back of the pickup cab, about 1 foot apart.

Therefore, as I traveled with the pole on the pickup, it was held in place by one of the round stakes on each side of the pole.

When I got to the job, the old pole was out already.  I cleaned out the hole and angled a flat board into the hole as a skid plate down into the hole.  I slowly backed my pickup toward the hole, lowering the large end into the hole.

About this time I realized that as the large end went down, the smaller, top end of the pole would rise off of the rack of the pickup and would reach a state of uncontrollable activity.  It could roll sideways or twist and fall, or any other number of catastrophic eventualities.  If it did so while I was in the cab, … ooops!

Just down the hill there was a parked car – directly in reach of the pole should it go that direction.  I realized that I should have provided a guide of some kind at the back end of the pick up to prevent any such occurrence.

My procedure became one of back up a little, check the pole, back a little, check, back a little, check, etc. etc. etc.  Eventually the pole was high enough and the larger end was far enough into the hole that I could manipulate the pole by hand.

After I had the pole up I sat down on the back of the pickup and rested until my heart had slowed down to a normal speed.

I contemplated how I would build the needed guide for the next time I needed to plant a pole singlehandedly.

I never had to do a pole like that again.

Also, I never built the guide.

Sometimes it’s better not to work alone.