Cranes are fascinating pieces of equipment.  There are many configurations of cranes.  There are mobile cranes on large haulers; stationary cranes for putting up skyscrapers; small portable cranes for miscellaneous work; and traveling cranes located inside manufacturing facilities – just to name a few options.

Recently I have read where some cranes have been tipped over.  One broke in half in a storm.  You can find pictures of cranes in accidents on the internet.  When no one is hurt it is entertaining to look at them.

I have seen cranes used for advertising.  A company will use a crane to lift something significant, such as an automobile, in the air and just leave it there.  Apparently the rent on the crane is less than the cost of T.V. or journalism advertising.

One of the wildest experiences I had working around, or in spite of, cranes was at the Kaiser Aluminum plant.

We were installing light fixtures near the ceiling, above the bottom of the open truss work.  There were cranes in use that were of the traveling variety.  The cranes were on a horizontal beam configuration that rested on wheels and overhead tracks on each side of the work bay.  As items were lifted they could be moved lengthwise along the bay and then sat down for the next operation.

We were working off of a mobile lift boom unit within the traveling area of the crane.  (Ladders would have been imprudent, given the circumstances.)  I was a little nervous at the start of the job.  I thought that the facility would shut the crane down while we were working there, but that was not what happened.

Instead, each crane would honk as it approached where we worked.  We then had to stop what we were doing and descend with our lift boom then travel out of the way of the crane load.  If the crane was on a quick trip we would wait till it came back before we could go back up to our project.  If the crane was on an extended trip we would go back up immediately.

It was quite a game of up and down and over and past and around.  I was constantly concerned about things like; “Is that guy running the crane awake?”  Does he look in all directions as he is traveling the crane?”  “Does he give himself plenty of room?”  “Are his breaks good?”  One mistake on the operators part and we would be in oblivion.  But those guys were pretty good operators.  They never made one slip.

I don’t know how they figured the time on the job when it was bid, but we didn’t get our job done very quickly.

I was very happy when the job was finished!

Besides, there was no day dreaming on that project.

After I finished my work at the South Hill Safeway store, I was in the shop at a desk making out the final “actuals” list of material used on the job.  The boss walked over and asked me; “Adrian, How do you read a blueprint?”

“Uh-oh” – I thought to myself.  Here it comes.  I wonder if I can find another job as good as this one has been.  I had thoroughly enjoyed working for this shop.  I sat there thinking; “How do you answer a question like that?”

“Very thoroughly” ???

“”Nonchalantly” ???

Is he asking me to blame someone for something?

Without waiting for me to formulate my reply, he continued; “Both (his son) and (the shop lead man) have run conduit on two big jobs and didn’t use the compression conduit fittings called out on the print.”  (Further vituperative expository explanation followed.)  The upshot of it was that these two large jobs downtown had to have all the set screw fittings changed out to compression fittings.  I was sent to assist.

The first assignment I received was to put together some recessed lighting fixtures.  I say “some” because if I remember correctly there were about 400 of them.  They were going to be installed throughout the building.  The last step in assembling each fixture was to snap a piece into position.  It was a hard “snap” to get it in place.  The procedure required a very hard pressure with both thumbs at the same time.

I think the first day I completed 75 fixtures.  I thought to myself; “I can do 100 of these in one day if I work at it.”

The next day I applied myself and completed 90.  The next day I was able to get 95 completed.  The next day I was closer, completing 98.

The next day I ran out of fixtures to assemble way before I got to 100.

Boy, were the muscles on my thumbs sore!  It was a good thing we ran out of fixtures to put together.

The next task I was given was to install the lighting fixtures over the escalators.  The ceilings were finished, but at each of the landings for the escalators there was an access hole.  I would crawl in the access hole and fish the wiring up and down inside the ceilings.  Then I would cut an opening for the fixture from below and install the fixture through the opening.

I made some interesting discoveries.

On the top of each landing, below the lowest point of each escalator, there was a hoard of coins.  Pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters.  Apparently the coins had been dropped by people as they rode the escalators.  All the quarters were bent at about a 30 degree angle.  They were the largest and not quite small enough to slip through the openings before the escalator turned the corner.  I took a rubber mallet and straightened out all the quarters.  If I remember correctly, it was about $5.00 worth.

There was also another profitable discovery.  I found two pipe wrenches which had, I suspected, been left by the original installation crew for the sprinkler system.

It didn’t surprise me.  After all, I believe I have left enough tools behind on jobs that they could have equipped a crew of electricians.

For years the term for a mobile home has varied.  First they were trailer houses.  (Often that term was shortened to “trailer.”)  Then they were “mobile homes.”    Now we refer to them as Manufactured Homes.

As far back as the early 1900s Sears, Roebuck, and Co. had a mail order house.  It came shipped in sections on a railroad flat car.  My father bought one and set it on his homestead.  That building is still being used.

For awhile there was a home built locally which was another form of manufactured home.  It was a pre-built structure.  These pre-built structures were completely furnished and came in two sections and sat on a foundation.

Because they were being transported, they had extra bracing in the attic.  As the electrical contractor we had to install a service when they were set up on the site.  The pre-built company would install junction boxes in the attic so that the wiring for the two sections could be spliced.

Sometimes there was extra work involved because the houses would be set with the wrong end toward the electrical service supply pole.  If the home owner also wanted a garage, then there would be more work in wiring the garage after it was added to the home.

For awhile these homes would be shipped in from Canada.  Since Canada and Washington State have different electrical codes, there were times when the home would sit at the border while changes were made to the wiring so that it could be imported into Washington.  Sometimes the delay was several days.

On one of the locations where a pre-built structure was being set up, there were already a number of buildings on site.  We had to make adjustments in the wiring for the entire site.

Installing what I refer to as mobile homes, I personally did the work on about 400 homes; about half of them I did alone.  Doing so called for good co-operation between the owners, the haulers, the other crafts and the inspectors.

I don’t think I ever did two that were alike.