| Ever since Benjamin Franklin went outside with his | | | | an electrician simply by changing that blown fuse or |
| kite during a thunderstorm, electricity has ruled the | | | | plugging things in just right or wiring up that |
| world. All you have to do to understand this is to | | | | complicated TV/VCR/DVD/stereo entertainment |
| remember what it was like the last time your power | | | | center you've just bought. You wire it up, plug it in |
| went out for an evening. Nothing worked. No | | | | and somehow it all works without any sparks or |
| computer, no refrigerator and more importantly, no | | | | problems and you feel like you could have been an |
| TV. Electricity runs everything important in our lives | | | | electrician if you'd really wanted to. Wrong. There is a |
| and when it malfunctions, somebody has to fix it, | | | | world of difference between plugging things in and |
| somebody who knows what they're doing, that is. | | | | being an electrician. |
| Electricity has the power to run things when it works | | | | To begin with the body of mathematics behind |
| smoothly, but, it can also burn things and kill people if | | | | electrical work is impressive. Electricity is measured in |
| misused. Of all the household accidents in this | | | | volts and is a function of voltage, current and |
| country, home electrical repairs ranks second in | | | | resistance - all factors with a complex mathematical |
| accidents right behind falling off ladders - only home | | | | relationship. There are laws, not the building codes |
| electrical repair accidents are more deadly than falling | | | | set in place by municipal governments to insure the |
| off ladders. | | | | safety of houses and commercial buildings, but |
| Good electricians are highly trained individuals with a | | | | mathematical laws proven with chalkboards of bizarre |
| lot of schooling and practical experience behind them. | | | | looking figures that prove how electricity will function |
| Before you go sticking your hand into a fuse box, or | | | | under different circumstances. And there are unions. |
| rewiring the house for power, you have to know a | | | | In fact the Electrical Workers Union (EWU) is one of |
| lot about electrical power - the way it moves, how it | | | | the strongest unions in America protecting the |
| does what it does, the math and physics behind it | | | | integrity of the profession from scammers and |
| and a lot of other things. Everybody feels like a bit of | | | | schemers. |