The Electrician's Helper

I originally published this story on Yahoo Voices

This is a funny story about an electrician's helper who made a very bad mistake. Of course, the names in the story have been changed. You'll know why after reading this story.

The electrician's name was Joe and his helper's name was Jim. Jim had prior training in interior house wiring. They had a job installing a light fixture in the attic of a three floor house. The house had been built in the early 1900's. Probably somewhere around 1901. Joe did some investigation and determined that the best path from the service box in the cellar to the attic was an inside wall. The house was a brick house and hence the outer wall was probably clogged with mortar.

The houses back then were not as easy to wire as the newer homes today. The big difference was the fire blocks (in the walls) designed a fire from spreading too rapidly. The fire block was a solid 4 inch by 4 inch block of wood that extended horizontally across the wall.

The first task was to find that inner wall from the cellar. Sometimes one can determine where the wall is by observing the wooden joists above, stretching across cellar. But in other cases, one needs another method of determining where the wall is.

One method is to cut a hole in the wall on each floor. This had to be done because it was not possible to drop a snake from the attic to the cellar inside the wall. The reason was simple: fire blocks. This had suddenly become a daunting task. Jim and Joe needed the owner's permission to cut holes in the wall on every floor and chip away at the fire blocks to make enough space to allow the cable through. Furthermore, they needed permission to rip apart the floor in the attic. But how would they find out where to drill down from the attic to get into the wall? Since they had permission to chop holes in the wall, the task became simple. They went up to the third floor and cut a hole in the wall near the ceiling. Then Jim tapped on the wood above the hole while Joe was up in the attic determining the location of the tapping sound. After determining where the tapping sound was coming from, Joe drilled and gained access to the inside of the wall. Then Joe dropped a snake into the wall and hit the fire block. He tapped the snake on the fire block until Jim determined where the sound was coming from and dug a hole in the wall at that point. Jim chipped away at the fire block until there was enough room for a cable to drop past the fire block. This was repeated on the second floor and the first floor.

Finally, after they uncovered all fire blocks, Jim stuck a long stiff wire that was known as a snake through the hole and down the wall of the first floor. Joe was in the cellar. When the stiff wire hit something solid. Jim moved the wire up and down, tapping on the solid structure. Joe was in the cellar listening for the tapping sound. Once he found where the tapping sound was, he took an electric drill, climbed a ladder and drilled up.

Every snake had an open loop at it's end. Joe stuck a snake through the hole. Jim and Joe wiggled their snakes until the loops connected. Joe pulled Jim's snake down just far enough to work with. Now they were prepared to pull a BX cable up the wall. The end of the BX was stripped leaving the insulated wires visible. Then electrical tape was used to connect the BX cable to the snake. Next the cable was pulled up into the wall. Eventually the cable extended from the attic to the cellar. The cable was pulled out of the hole far enough to form and loop and tape it after disconnecting the snake. Now the cable could not slip back into the wall. The first part of the operation was complete. Or so they thought.

Now in order for the reader to understand what a big mistake Jim made, I'll start by stating that it took 24 hours (two days) to install a BX cable from the service box in the cellar to the hole and inside the wall up to the attic. Got that? Twenty four hours!

Finally Jim was up in the attic holding the cable. He taped the cable in a big loop to prevent it from slipping back into the wall. This is where everything went sour. Joe was way down in the cellar yelling up to Jim.

Jim heard Joe say "Let it go!" Jim couldn't believe his ears. Let it go? After all the trouble they went through? Jim yelled down trying to clarify what Joe intended. But to no avail. Now if Jim were thinking correctly, he would have went down the cellar and clarified what Joe wanted. But Jim was exhausted from two days hard work. He was tired, hot and sweaty and he wasn't thinking straight. Joe was unaware that Jim had already released the snake and it was stuck in the wall. Joe wanted Jim to let the snake go. Not understanding this, Jim let the BX cable go.

Joe swore so loud that Jim heard him from the attic. Joe was in the cellar. It was a three floor house. Everyone heard Joe's cursing!

Now you might be surprised to learn that Jim was not fired on the spot. Joe waited until the job was completed (another 8 hours.) During the final 8 hours of work on that job, Joe brought a couple of walkie talkies to ensure that that dumb mistake ( and it was dumb! ) never happened again. Of course, Jim was fired after the job was complete.