General Ease and Comfort

I started as a technician-engineer student with GEC Telecommunications Coventry in September 1976. Our induction lasted for three days and we were told all sorts of useful things. Only a handful of them stick in my mind and they were all things NOT to do.

  1. Do not leave charged up capacitors lying around
  2. Do not leave the chuck key in the lathe
  3. Do not mess about with air hoses
  4. Do not clock on anyone else

These were all grounds for dismissal. The air hose one was illustrated with some rather graphic images of what happens when you squirt a high pressure air jet up someone’s jacksie.

Inevitably, I eventually violated rule number two, starting up the lathe without checking the key was out first, after a minor distraction. I was very lucky- it just clattered in the bed of the lathe. They had been known to fly through the roof of the 1st year training school though.

One Response to “General Ease and Comfort”

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  1. The Morningstar says:

    I remember walking past what was Barrow-in-Furness Technical college in about 1983 and my friend pointing out the hole he had made in the glass roof with the chuck key from a lathe.

    Is it some sort of rite of passage?

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