Your first job in Coventry

Following on from the Acid incident. It was again another busy Saturday on the shop floor of Woolies, playing in the background was Telstar as it was on most days, I was on the shop floor repairing one of the floor washing machine, from the note I received from the machine operator it would have appeared the machine just stopped and then became intermittent. Not rocket science , it was a common fault, the cable feeding the machine had become broken inside the outer sleeve. The remedy was to cut the cable just as it entered the connection box, open the box then reterminate the wires and discarding the faulty section. Easy! So armed with a pair of side cutters I proceeded to cut through the cable ( I should have pulled the mains plug out first) oops . A loud bang and loads of sparks as I cut into the wires, then the cutters shot from my hand landing two isles away. Trying to look cool and to give the impression to all the shoppers I knew what I was doing I retrieved the cutters still shaking I returned to the broken machine . Looking at my cutters I could see I now had an hole where they had been in contact with the live wires, then I did something real stupid, I forgot again to remove the plug from the mains supply, DERrrr. Still smiling and looking real cool I cut into the cable again followed by a loud bang and sparks, the cutters were launched again landing in almost the same place as before, I could not believe that I had done it twice. And still I was standing? The thing I could not understand was why the fuse did not blow? Still baffles me today? Needless to say the next thing I did was to remove the plug. The cutters were now rendered useless as they had an even bigger hole in them now. Makes me think what could have happened. I fixed the machine and all was well again. Another of my nine lives I guess Dreamtime. Colin.

It's either nine lives or a 'death wish' RKid. You are certainly pushing your luck. I had an electric shock from the washing machine once. I was a newlywed and whilst I had my left hand on the cold water tap - connected to the machine - my right hand turned the machine on and then WHAM it felt like I had been hit in the chest with a mallet. That shook me up quite a bit so my hubby called in a 'sparkie' and he said the machine was not earthed properly. Funny though I had been using the machine a couple of days before. Nothing to do with a 'first job' but it could have been the 'last one' for me ! Take care RKid

Cheers Dreamtime for the comments I did sail a bit close to the wind on occasions. No need to tell me what a shock feels like I have had few, well working in the radio and tv repair, I was always told to keep on hand in your pocket when working on some Tv sets. One thing we used to do at the AEI was to hold onto a wind up Mega ( a device that produced about 500 volts , used to test eletrical equipment not many amps though so it would not kill you) you could hold to full potential providing it was turned slowly and built up over a period of time, nice to see you still read my exploits, the next one is imminent . You also take care. Colin.

Enjoyed these reminiscences of first jobs, so here's my tuppence-worth. My first summer job age 15 was helping the electricians in the recently opened Coventry Cathedral. A company called Three Spires Electrical had the contract and I got a job with them. Don't remember much about it now, but we had a workshop/storeroom somewhere in the labyrinth of concrete corridors under the nave. One of the apprentices showed me a great trick there. He got a soft pencil and made a track about 3" long on the work bench and then holding two wires with mains across them (the electrocution position), touched onto the ends of the track. A sheet of flame resulted and, as the final act of bravado, lit his cigarette. It was the perfect storm for a health and safety fanatic! Needless to say I tried it at home. My next summer job around 1965 was at GEC in their electronics design lab. I remember it was in a factory not far from Pool Meadow, maybe Upper Ford Street. It was an old single-storey factory with a sawtooth roof. Don't know how I got that job. Anyway, I spent the summer testing circuit boards for a new short wave radio they were designing. It was very advanced looking back as it used digital electronics and numeric displays. It was intended for the military/maritime market so it was high spec. Haven't been able to find anything about it on the Web. Anyone know about this factory? A year or two later I was back at GEC again, this time in the Spon Street Works. I think it was 1967. The design lab, run by Mr. Drybrough, was on an upper floor and I remember we watched them tearing down old buildings in the area towards the Butts, presumably for the Ringway. Lots of streets of old tenements with top-shops. That year I worked on modifications to some new personal VHF radios they had designed for the police. They were all transistor and about the size of medium-sized book. There was the Lancon (designed for Lancashire Constabulary) and the Courier, much the same design but in a more ergonomic curved case to fit the body. Presumably these were manufactured at Spon Street. Found an article about them in the GEC Journal, which included and interesting quote about the limitations of the internal battery: "Use may be made at some time in the future of body heat or sun energy

Another one for you Dreamtime. Not long after the the Water machine incident something else happened that almost became a minor disaster. During the lead up to Christmas it was my job to hang Christmas Trees from the ceiling of the main shopping floor, about 24 Trees in all. They were suspended from wires stretched from either side of the store. For this mission I was given the assistance of one of one of the Stockroom boys, To get Up to the high level required we used a moving gantry . It was rectangular in shape and to get up the gantry to the working platform level. we had to climb at the ends of the gantry so it would not tip over How many times did I tell him not to climb up the sides. Not long into the mission my helper Paul climbed down ,moved the gantry along with me still on top of the working platform, about to hang another Tree. Then he stopped and applied the brakes on the Gantry, But guess what, he forgot and began to climb up the side, unbeknown to me, I was busy and looking the other way. All of a sudden the gantry began to tip over, I knew in a flash what had happened and began to brace myself for a fall, the tower/ gantry stood about 20 foot high so it was a fair height, as the tower began to topple over I started to look for a safe landing spot. As luck has it I was over a clear area (no customers or obstructions ). This bit did amaze me somewhat, as the tower neared the floor I just seemed to step of it, checked myself for any damage, all was ok ? I did not even fall over. My luck did not rub off on my helper Paul, has he had is back to the floor (ie climbing up the side and not the end of the tower) well he did have a bit of luck I guess, as the tower was positioned when it toppled over I had full clearance but Paul's landing area was in the middle of the serving isle ( counters on both sides ) . I must say he did land with a bit of a bump landing on his back, he was taken to the Medical Room to be checked out , later he returned to help me clear up but he was sent home to rest his back. Not a lot of damage done and we were so lucky no member of staff or public were hurt , I remember having to do some explaining, not too sure what was said but we got out of it ok. Forgot about the Christmas Trees,

Nice one rootes66 my trouble is knowing when to stop . It's great looking back, that's providing its not a sad look back. They call it the good old days and for me and quite a few on here it is. Colin Edited by TonyS, 29th Sep 2012 3:56 pm (Quote abbreviated)

I remember that radio (or one similar). During part of my apprenticeship I worked briefly at Ford street about 1962 or 63. As you rightly said it was designed for military use, especially for tanks. I remember one requirement was that it had to be sturdy enough to be stood on because the tank crew had to stand on it to get in and out of the tank.

You went 'A over T' then RKid. I think you had a guardian angel watching that time.

Hi Radford Kid. I was never injured while working underground. My butty was killed whie trying to move a coal cutter. As far as the Mau Mau were concerned the British army had no difficulty in getting troops to sign up for a tour in Kenya after showing us film of what Mau Mau were doing to women and children. It's a little known fact that there were about 180 British soldiers killed whie the Mau Mau lost 23,000...Les

brilliant post. Edited by TonyS, 29th Sep 2012 12:47 pm (Quote abbreviated)

Hello Lesmac I guess it's up to me to ask, what is a Butty? We thought it was short for sandwich as in Chip Butty. Please let us know. I did not know about their being 180 British soldiers being killed. I remember being very scared, we were told about the decapitations hence me going to bed with both guns under my pillow. Colin

Thanks for the comment, glad you liked it, so much went on, far too much to post . Colin

Thanks again Dreamtime, I can always rely on you to say the right thing, thanks.

In a mine a butty is an assistant or an apprentice, someone who helps a skilled man. On the canals a butty is a boat being towed by a leading boat. This was often seen when canals were used to trasport goods. I have no idea where or why this came about but I have a feeling that the miners pinched it from the canal people...Les

Thanks for that Les. Sorry to hear that your Butty was killed, that must have been a terrible shock, no wonder you left. Thanks again for the info. Colin