used to come to work in a 3 piece suit, waistcoat , watch and chain. all the other trades loooked on him as God.

First firm I worked for, there was an ole chap who did all the small jobs and maintenance work.

He wore a bib & brace. Shirt and tie, brown Oxford Brogues, and a Sports Jacket. He had more pens & pencils, in his breast pocket, than Joe 90.

He could also test for dead, with his index finger.
 
As an apprentice I worked with a guy named Colin, he was the top spark in the firm and at the time was responsible for designing and building control panels. He was the go to guy for all the other sparks if they had a problem they couldn't solve. I always remember as a spotty faced teenager how knowledgeable and skilled he was. I remember asking how he knew where all the cables went, connecting all the relays and contactors... without following a diagram? He gave me a simple piece of advice that always stuck with me. "Easiest way to think about it is, there are only 2 things that happen, it switches on and switches off". this actually made complete sense and all of a sudden I realised that using that concept I could grasp an understanding of what was going on with these panels.

He was a very smart guy who could explain things in the simplest of terms. R.I.P Big Col
 
"Easiest way to think about it is, there are only 2 things that happen, it switches on and switches off". this actually made complete sense and all of a sudden I realised that using that concept I could grasp an understanding of what was going on with these panels.

Me and a mate working nights wiring up some robotics machine thingy. We had loads of control switches to wire up; they were in different positions on the thing, and we couldn’t get our heads round whether to use a normally open one, or a normally closed one, dependant on how it was fixed on the machine and what the drawing said.

We asked the foreman. He picked up a normally closed one, threw it on the bench. Said when the drawing says normally closed contacts, use one of them. Threw a normally open one on the bench. Said when the drawing says normally open contacts, use one of them. Threw one with both normally open and closed contacts on the bench, said when...............

Simple explanation for simple minds :)
 
I was an apprentice to Dave Riman when I worked for EIC in the late 90s/early 2000s, taught me every thing I know, and he was a old school spark.

Everything had to be straight and level or it came out., his favourite saying was you can only work live if you are as fat as me!!!
 
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Pete999

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Best Sparky you ever worked with
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