When I was working on a job with high voltage (12500 volts), we came across a feature of electricity that has a lot to do with how we use electricity today.

Electricity is produced in two forms.  We use the terms describing these two forms almost every day without realizing how they effect the electric power we receive.

DC power is direct current.  AC power is alternating current.  Generally when we use DC power a battery is involved.  Alternating current means that the current travels back and forth at a certain rate of speed.  One of the more common rates of speed is 60 times a second.

On the job with the high voltage (12500 volts), when we turned on the power to the 12500 volt 60 cycle (60 cycles per second) circuit it blew the fuse.  There was no power load on the circuit when we powered it up.  Upon investigating the cause, we were informed that the fuse had blown because of harmonics.

I was completely buffaloed!  How would harmonics trip a fuse when there was no load.  In fact, for that matter, what was harmonics?  Today I still do not completely understand it.  Since that time I have learned that as the electricity cycled back and forth 60 times a second, a small amount of electricity would lag behind.  The lag was what was referred to as harmonics.

Instead of the power being at a regulated 240 volts some of the lag (harmonics) would be at 2 volts and some even less than that.  It seemed to be in thirds. – a third harmonic, a sixth harmonic, a ninth harmonic (this is where I get lost).

Lately people that know this stuff very well have used the measurable harmonics for control wiring.  Thus we have arrived at the age of electronics, computers, etc.

Some electrical experst understand this stuff and can explain it more thoroughly and correctly.

Perhaps this is the reason I have such a difficulty in using a computer, e-mail, face page, twizzler, etc. etc. etc.

I have done other work besides electrical work.  Both before starting the electrical trade, and in between steady work, I had other jobs.

Being raised on the farm, I have driven 30 different kinds of tractors, two combines, a hay mower, and a hay rake.  I have driven horses, hauled hay, grain, bundles of grain, and shocked grain (Canadians call it “stuked”)

I have milked cows and goats, butchered animals, thinned beets, picked potatoes, picked cotton, worked on a sheep ranch, a cattle ranch and worked in the woods skidding logs with a horse.  I have picked fruit, irrigated beans, worked in a department store as a delivery boy, and worked as a common laborer.

I have worked in North Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, California and New York.  I owned my own electrical contracting business for 22 years.  I have also tried to keep up with my wife’s “honey-do” list.

Although I enjoyed farming, electrical work has always been more interesting and challenging.  Now, however, I do very little work that would be classed as “earning a living.”  Though I am the Administrator of my sons’ shop, I am mostly retired, but being retired is pretty tiring.  I think that’s why they call it RE-tired.  Therefore to stave off RE-tired-ment, I try to keep up on my wife’s “honey-do” list.

My advice to everybody is “Don’t Get Old!”

With all that variety of work experience, one common lesson I learned is: Do Not try to tell someone who works in another craft how to do their work!  It will only make enemies.

Find out what you do best and stick with it.

Play it safe.

Generally speaking, I try not to be the one in charge.  You are the guy that winds up in the middle, between everyone; – The Boss and the men; The customer and the Boss; The architect and the engineer; The engineer and the inspector.

As a result I was never given the position of Foreman, which suited me just fine.

Many times I worked alone.  I actually preferred it.  In fact years ago I worked alone on government projects for months.  Towards the last they put me in charge of working out the “Punch List.”

When the inspector inspected the job, he made a list of all the things needing correction – the “Punch List.”  I noticed certain things came up again and again on the punch list.  I made up a list of my own.  I called it the “Pre Punch List.”

I showed my list to the Foreman and he thought it was great.  He took it to the upper echelon and they also liked it.  In fact they liked it so much they made copies and sent it to every one of their crews.  We eliminated the “Punch List” because of it.

Years later when working alone, I would use that system.  As a job neared its finish, I would make a pre-punch list and post it somewhere convenient.  I would add to the list as things needed to be done and scratch them out as things got done, and thus, no punch list.  You can punch out a job more efficiently using that system.

One job required us to drive 100 miles one way to get to the job site.  There were just two men, the foreman and me.  One day the foreman had to take the day off to take care of personal business.  He told me to take care of things while he was gone.  No problem!

And there weren’t any problems.

When I got my check at the end of the week the company had included foreman pay for one day.

Surprise, surprise.