On Aug 25, 2021, at 1:30 PM, bzs@theworld.com wrote:
<OBLIGATORY FUNNY STORY>
Except maybe that one guy at Harvard who came to replace what turned out to be a 100+ year old, home made, "breaker" which fed our machine room which was hidden in a narrow dark hallway winding around our machine room behind an unmarked metal, locked doorway. I had no idea it existed but we had no power so I called for help.
It was just a single copper bar about the size of a small candy bar tensioned into hot clips. Probably 400A but who remembers.
He removed the old one confidently enough, grabbed the new one with rubber-handled pliers and gloves and...
Him: Have you ever played football?
Me: Actually, yes, I have, why?
Him: If something doesn't look right when I put this thing in just tackle me clear of it as hard and as fast as you can.
Me: Um, ok.
It all worked out fine and I wrote a memo that maybe Harvard could spring for a proper $500 breaker box?
</OBLIGATORY FUNNY STORY>
When I was working at the MCI training facility in 1994, I went into the power facility classroom where they had battery strings, rectifiers, transfer switches, etc for students to learn on. I noticed that every 8-10 feet there was an 8 foot long 3/4 inch PVC pipe with about 16 feet of rope threaded through it. When I asked what those were for, the instructor said “We will use those to pull people off the electricity in case anyone gets shocked.” I never heard that they were used, so that’s good. —Chris