Angry Wiring

In the electrical industry—particularly the construction side—we talk much about “workmanship” or “craftsmanship.”  To people working outside the industry, this concept might seem a bit nitpicky, if not esoteric.  I recall, for example, taking my wife and daughter to visit some of the buildings I had worked on shortly before the buildings were occupied.  On several such occasions, we toured mechanical and electrical areas where the electricians had created beautiful racks of electrical conduits.  These racks flowed like shining rivers from electrical distribution equipment and then branched out into smooth streams that fed power to every corner.

“What do you think?” I proudly asked my wife on one such occasion.

“Looks like a bunch of pipes,” she said.

Obviously, she did not see the craftsmanship, the hours of labor, as I did.

Yesterday, I taught a class on electrical transformer theory and National Electrical Code rules governing transformer installation.  At the close of the class, participants worked in pairs to wire (and properly “ground”) a mock transformer.  I captured images of two of these boards with my twice-as-smart-as-me-phone.

See if you can identify the board completed by craftsmen.

--Mitchell Hegman

NOTE: The “angry” wiring was done partially as a joke, but I assure you that such differences exist in wiring systems all around you.