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.
- Do not leave charged up capacitors lying around
- Do not leave the chuck key in the lathe
- Do not mess about with air hoses
- 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.
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?
Comment by The Morningstar — May 27, 2008 @ 11:51 pm