Jolted :/

[andyvh1959]

Local electrical inspector came by yesterday and approved my detached garage sub-panel and ground rods installation. We got talking in general about wiring experiences and I commented about a pretty good jolt i got correcting a false neutral in my dad's house, prepping it for inspection before selling it. I'm sure many of us have been, ah,...reminded about working around potential live or hot circuits. The old electricians tip is to keep one hand in your pocket, and do initial contact with one hand, so a "potential" goes out through your legs/feet rather than across your chest. Some truth to that, as we all make mistakes.

Inspector said he once was doing a commercial inspection, on a ladder near 10' off the floor. He had light gloves on. He had one hand on a steel truss to steady himself. As he reached into the electrical area he was inspecting his gloved had pushed off a wire nut that had barely been turned onto a hot lead. The voltage went across his chest and both hands clenched tight when the current caused muscle contractions, couldn't let go. He said he kicked off the ladder so his body weight disconnected him from the source. Said he had ringing ears for weeks, metal taste in his mouth, and his gut muscles felt like he did 5,000 crunches for a week.

 

[NUTTSGT]

I forget exactly what happened or why it did but in 2003/04 when I was ripping off the old standing seam off the back of the house to put a new roof on, I got some tingling. The bottom of the metal roof had rusted and water had got in. The wood soffit was wet and as I had my hand down on a nail I got a small dose it and it made my hand twitch.

I forget what it was that I fixed in the attic, but it was just another on **** I had to fix in this house.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Local electrical inspector came by yesterday and approved my detached garage sub-panel and ground rods installation. We got talking in general about wiring experiences and I commented about a pretty good jolt i got correcting a false neutral in my dad's house, prepping it for inspection before selling it. I'm sure many of us have been, ah,...reminded about working around potential live or hot circuits. The old electricians tip is to keep one hand in your pocket, and do initial contact with one hand, so a "potential" goes out through your legs/feet rather than across your chest. Some truth to that, as we all make mistakes.

Inspector said he once was doing a commercial inspection, on a ladder near 10' off the floor. He had light gloves on. He had one hand on a steel truss to steady himself. As he reached into the electrical area he was inspecting his gloved had pushed off a wire nut that had barely been turned onto a hot lead. The voltage went across his chest and both hands clenched tight when the current caused muscle contractions, couldn't let go. He said he kicked off the ladder so his body weight disconnected him from the source. Said he had ringing ears for weeks, metal taste in his mouth, and his gut muscles felt like he did 5,000 crunches for a week.

Not either hand. The left hand should be behind the back so the current isnt near your heart.

 

[alfredeneuman]

Not either hand. The left hand should be behind the back so the current isnt near your heart.

Then left handed people wouldn't be able to work?

 

[andyvh1959]

Electricity is only for right handed people? Huh, who would have thunk that? Discriminatory.

Back in 08, working in my parents house to clean up multiple minor wiring issues to pass inspection. My dad would not spend the money for box covers, or in some cases junction boxes. I corrected 75 minor issues. Big one was a double deep oversize junction box in the attic above the kitchen/living room. Had at least ten connections in it, multiple circuits. I had my brother in the basement shutting off breakers until my meter went zero. I had to disconnect everything to get the wires back into the box properly with romex clamps. Thought everything was off until, WHHHOOOAAA got a strong jolt that caused some shaking. Pretty sure I found the hot/false neutral that was causing issues over the years. That was my worst one ever. Got it corrected, passed inspection. Felt kinda buzzy for a while.

 

[nadogail]

I learned while working as a "maintenance technician" for a manufacturing company that 120 Kicks, and 277 Kicks, and 480 will knock you off your ladder.

Your Wiggins is your friend; test it on a known good outlet before you need a measurement.

 

[Robbie B]

I learned while working as a "maintenance technician" for a manufacturing company that 120 Kicks, and 277 Kicks, and 480 will knock you off your ladder.

Your Wiggins is your friend; test it on a known good outlet before you need a measurement.

I work in an older plant. We’re still on 575/600 delta. I was changing a fuse for a pump motor out. Hit the disconnect but it didn’t completely break the connection. Pulled the fuse on the first leg no problem. Pulled the one on the second leg and as my dad would’ve put it; it knocked my **** in the dirt. Thank God I just barely got a taste of it but that was enough. All my joints in my right arm throbbed to a week. I definitely try to be even more careful now.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

I work in an older plant. We’re still on 575/600 delta. I was changing a fuse for a pump motor out. Hit the disconnect but it didn’t completely break the connection. Pulled the fuse on the first leg no problem. Pulled the one on the second leg and as my dad would’ve put it; it knocked my **** in the dirt. Thank God I just barely got a taste of it but that was enough. All my joints in my right arm throbbed to a week. I definitely try to be even more careful now.

Why didnt you prove dead before touching it?

 

[Jim greengo]

Treat its hot weather it is or not is pretty safe rule,kept me alive all these years.
But I've still been hit plenty of times in the last 50 or so years of doing this.
Anybody who says they've never been bit is either full of ****,or they just like to watch others do the work.

 

[Robbie B]

Why didnt you prove dead before touching it?

Well, it’s one of those fuses where the holder lays out and disconnects if from the circuit. The line voltage comes in from the bottom and I think what happened was when I reached in I pushed the fuse back down into the lower connector. This is something I had done often and it had never been an issue before. It was end of the day and I was in a hurry and all that adds up. I’m a hell of a lot more careful now and don’t worry about the clock when it comes to doing stuff like that.

 

[andyvh1959]

My 1st ever garage build back in 1980 was a learning event, little 16 x 20. I used the buried cable that was in the old garage to power the new one. However, when I wired it up, in my haste I used some tape over twisted wires instead of wire nuts, especially on the light switch just inside the service door. As I recall, on humid days I'd get a bit of a buzz when my hand touched the metal switch box.

The next spring I formed up the driveway and my wife's dad and brother came over to help on the concrete pour. I was the middle guy on the screed up to my ankles in concrete. Uncle Tom, standing the wet concrete reached into the garage and yelled when his hand touched the light switch box. He didn't like my response of "oh yeah, that one's hot sometimes." :Later, humid summer, my electrical bill was high. I complained to the electric company but they said my bill was correct for the watts being used. I argued to no avail. A few days later, hot very humid day, I'm standing by the garage service door and I can hear a distinct buzzing/crackling sound, coming from the light switch box. Kind of like really quiet MIG welding buzz. What the hell?

Turned off the power, took the cover off the switch box to find an arc weld spot inside the box where a twisted pair hot wire had projected through my hasty tape job, and in humid weather the buzzing was an arc to the switch box. I fixed the issue, put a proper wire nut on all my twisted/taped connections, and, huh, my electrical bill went down. Damn lucky I never shocked someone seriously or burnt down my garage. Dumb ***.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Treat it hot like it is or not is pretty safe rule,kept me alive all these years.
But I've still been hit plenty of times in the last 50 or so years of doing this.
Anybody who says they've never been bit is either full of ****, or they just like to watch others do the work.

Jim, what I have always told the new guys at the fire dept, since we deal sometimes deal with electrical stuff, is there's 2 rules to know about electricity.

1. It needs to be a complete circuit for it to work.

2. Don't become the complete circuit.

 

[Jim greengo]

Jim, what I have always told the new guys at the fire dept, since we deal sometimes deal with electrical stuff, is there's 2 rules to know about electricity.

1. It needs to be a complete circuit for it to work.

2. Don't become the complete circuit.

Exactly!
I remember a guy telling me when I was kid that you wouldnt get shocked if you only touched 1 wire.
Problem was that I forgot which wire he said not to touch!

 

[abt12]

Was tracing a wire through some custom 240V test equipment. Couldn't take the equipment down as it was in use but was being extra careful about staying away from any exposed wiring (and there shouldn't have been any).

Turns out it had a bad ground AND a case short, so when the back of my hand touched a screw on a power supply I got a damn good hit. Not sure if it was 120 or 240, but it left a good imprint of the screw on the back of my hand for a few hours and was not a fun time. Luckily it was the back of my hand so I jerked away instantly.

 

[Jinks]

Not either hand. The left hand should be behind the back so the current isnt near your heart.

Then left handed people wouldn't be able to work?

What difference would that make? They never do anything RIGHT.....

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Was tracing a wire through some custom 240V test equipment. Couldn't take the equipment down as it was in use but was being extra careful about staying away from any exposed wiring (and there shouldn't have been any).

Turns out it had a bad ground AND a case short, so when the back of my hand touched a screw on a power supply I got a damn good hit. Not sure if it was 120 or 240, but it left a good imprint of the screw on the back of my hand for a few hours and was not a fun time. Luckily it was the back of my hand so I jerked away instantly.

wouldnt have been 240v unless you were also touching a hot wire from the other phase. remember the hot legs are 120v to ground.

what kind of shoes were you wearing?

were you leaning against something that was grounded?

What difference would that make? They never do anything RIGHT.....

 

[abt12]

wouldnt have been 240v unless you were also touching a hot wire from the other phase. remember the hot legs are 120v to ground.

what kind of shoes were you wearing?

were you leaning against something that was grounded?

Was transformer based - iirc we were using it to test EU voltage and frequency for compliance reasons (pretty sure there was a solid state frequency converter in there too, but I didn't get too involved in the thing). I never bothered tracing the wire back to see which side of the transformer it was on.

It was 6-8 years and a corporate bankruptcy ago, so my memory is fuzzy at best, but I'm sure I had my other hand somewhere else on the test equipment frame.

 

[andyvh1959]

Surprising how many of us, some with a lot more experience with electrical systems, have been shocked or jolted. Is it an indicator that we all get lax at some time, or suffer someone else's lax work? Perhaps the best guide really is "treat it like it's hot, even if it's not." All it takes is one errant move or hand placement and you either have fuzzy eyebrows or no eyebrows, or heartbeat.

 

[Citation]

As I'm not an electrician I'm sure my stories aren't as grand but I've been shocked twice.

The first was my own stupidity. Back in college I lived in a basement room for a time. One beautiful, sunny day I was walking home and noticed some water flowing across the sidewalk from a manhole or something. I didn't give it much thought until later. I proceeded down to my room and noted the god awful electronic "music" coming from my neighbors room. However, upon reaching my door I realized that sound was coming from my room! I opened the door and discovered a waterfall flooding through my subterranean window! The water was something like 6" up on my window. My stereo was placed under the window and I was hearing the sounds of electronic death. I quickly, and without thinking, started pulling components out from under the waterfall. It was at that time the VCR reminded me that I hadn't actually got around to unplugging anything...

I unplugged the, thankfully dry, surge protector and finished moving things. Most of the items were ruined but I was actually able to fix my VCR after replacing a single component on the power supply, the only place the water got inside. Over 2 decades later I still have that VCR and it still works!


My other shock was a few years back. My sister wanted help with an oven. I go to pull the thing out of the wall and get a strong tingle in my hand. The #%@!!! person who wired it didn't do something right and the oven housing became live! My sister later called an electrician out to take a look. I don't recall what was actually wrong but it was something really screwy in the way the wiring was connected.

I do have one story that thankfully didn't result in a shock but could have. My old employer was having a 240V, 7hp compressor installed in a utility room. For some beyond stupid reason, the hired contractor decided to not add a breaker to the panel. Instead, this idiot connected the wires to the mains coming into the panel! Just clamped into the binding posts with the mains! To the jackhole's credit, I think they were connected on the panel vs input side of the main breaker but I'm not actually certain. They then ran the wire across the ceiling grid from the panel to the utility room. So the probably 400A mains leads (what ever size would be used for an office of ~30 people) were connected to wires that were just laying on top of the office ceiling grid and then into the compressor. The guy in charge of our shop was livid when he figured this out. This was quickly and inconveniently fixed. The company contacted the state about this egregious safety violation. No idea what happened after that. BTW, we were using licensed contractors for this office renovation. This wasn't a company who was trying to save money by hiring a discount electrician.

 

[jives]

Back in college I worked for my contractor brother and we were gutting the inside of a house. I was carrying a sawzall up on my shoulder and brushed it along a live wire dangling from the ceiling. I went one way and the sawzall went another. Luckily the contact was only a split second.

 

[mrVanagon]

My brother worked as an appliance installer. His coworker Chuck regularly mis-wired electric dryers. After the third time a customer complained about the tingle they felt when starting the new maytag, he got fired. To this day he is remembered as "ground Chuck"

 

[swamplife]

I knocked myself off a ladder a few months ago working on some bathroom wiring. I killed the breaker for the circuit I wanted to cut. Traced the wire from the breaker box to a junction box, then through the wall to another junction box, then to a gangbox and an outlet attached to the gangbox. The way the gangbox was set up, I could see that it was a junction in there and feeding other outlets.

So I got up on the ladder and *snip* to cut the line so I could pull it through and replace the drywall.

Got a jolt and with a little snap, crackle and pop I was laying on the ground.

What I failed to account for was two different circuits running through one of the junction boxes. I'm not sure why, but both circuits ran through the first junction box , then traveled different paths to the gang box for the outlet at which point the wire for the bedroom went through the gangbox with a junction (sharing a ground with the bathroom / everything circuit) then up into the 2nd floor.

I could have avoided it by checking the wire I was cutting but since I(thought) it was connected to the dead outlet I'd be fine.

The wiring in my house is a complete disaster but I'm sorting through it.

This is the 2nd set of bridged circuits I've found.

 

[bdbecker]

A little different type of jolt... I was doing something on my '64 F100 one hot, humid day. Focused on the task and not my surroundings, I laid my sweaty forearm across both battery terminals. The backside of my arm was numb for a week.

 

[ColoMid]

bd reminds me of an incident in my early days in my career job after serving as an USAF A&E tech. I was a new equipment check out tech at a large manf plant. One particular product was a power supply for a microwave transmit tube requiring filament and 5000 volts plate supply. I went over to see what was puzzling the guys and then the supervisor came along to see what the fuss was. Leroy was his name. Leans on the exposed transformer and managed to lay his metal watchband on the filament terminals.
Turned it red hot in an instant!

 

[ColoMid]

After retirement from the aforementioned career I bought a newer home. The place seemed in very reasonable condition with some recent upgrades. After getting settled
I began to explore the utilities to become acquainted with the layout, etc.
Made my way to the attic for an insulation assessment and noticed two electrical
junction boxes with wires sticking out. One had several bare ground wires sticking up.
Came back to it later to trace out what the issue was. While gripping one box for
balance I reached over to wiggle the bare wires attempting to trace which romex
each was connected to. ZAP! One wire was HOT! So began a search to find the
source of the live ground wire.
Directly below me was the hall bath. Pulled the plate off a two switch box. Pulled one
switch and found what some previous homeowner (of six) had lived with.
The clue was this was a 3-way switch not known to have a ground wire screw, but there was the ground wire on the "spare" screw.
Turns out when the switch was off that bare wire became hot and would pop the breaker. Some jack leg expert installed a 3-way in place of a 2. He never found his problem.
So several circuits had no ground from the attic box. Amazing.

 

[engineer2]

The original breaker panel labels in my house were merely a suggestion rather than identifying what the breakers actually fed. A big help was to finally identify all the circuits and recreate the panel label in Excel and tape it over the original. Got tingled a few times from shared neutrals. Now they are all identified and handle-tied.

would not spend the money for box covers

Same as the original owner of my house. He apparently figured if a suspended ceiling covered it, you don't need a J-box cover or even EMT as required by local code. Had to rip out half the basement electric and redo it in EMT.

 

[b-boy]

A little different type of jolt... I was doing something on my '64 F100 one hot, humid day. Focused on the task and not my surroundings, I laid my sweaty forearm across both battery terminals. The backside of my arm was numb for a week.

Car batteries can deliver a kick.

My friend had a 1973 AMC Hornet. One day he called me up to help him get it started. I went over with my jumper cables and we tried to get it going. It wouldn't start. Not even a click.

I pulled the jumper cables. We were standing by the car trying to figure out what to do next, and the car just started by itself. I looked at him and said 'I'm not getting in that car. It's possessed.'.

A few days later it wouldn't start again. I opened the hood, and reached in to smack the starter to see if it was stuck. I had one hand on the starter, and the other on the fender when I got a really good Zap. It hurt like hell for a while.

 

[Red 17]

When I was about 3, I found a wire furniture or rug tag. In other words, a piece of bare wire. With a room full of adults, I managed to take it over to the wall outlet and plug it in. It left a lasting impression.

Later I wondered what those round things were when you opened the oven door. Unscrewed one and discoverd electricity. "In the finger and out my elbow" I was quoted as saying by my mother. Repeatedly over the years...

So you'd think I'd have a thing about hot wires. I carefully shut off the breaker when wiring our new range hood. No matter how careful you are when you shut off a breaker, if you have the wrong breaker, you will get a lesson. I had to sit down for a while after that one.

I was going to change a light switch for a friend. The wife went out to the breaker box and flicked a breaker. The kitchen went out--lights, refrigerator. I asked her which one she hit. "Oh, the big one". I got a full load almost as soon as I started fooling with the switch. Turns out....well, you know.

There's more as I am apparently a slow learner. But I changed my breaker the other day and used my new little test light and ended up trauma-free.

As I hope y'all end up with your future jobs.

 

[DeeKay]

My first year in industrial maintenance I got a 480 kick at the box factory I worked at. I was trying to un-jamb a lead screw on a machine without having to get the laptop out and force the PLC logic. It was about 100° in the building, I was drenched with sweat and stupidly had one hand on the panel door. I took my right pointer finger and pushed in the reverse motor starter(these were the old "finger-safe" yellowish IEC allen-bradley starters) which I had done on other ones with no issue(I know I know, very stupid). I hadn't realized that this one had some carbon on the outside. Well as soon as I pushed in, that 480 jumped to the carbon which jumped to my finger and luckily accross my sweaty body and out my other hand. My luck was two fold that day; 1. I didn't die, 2. I was already drenched with sweat so no one could see that I pissed my self.

Needless to say, I've never touched a hot contactor again.

 

[dls]

When I was about 16yo, I got a broken electric shocker that I was attempting to repair. I've replaced one of the caps, and it was still not working. Touched the cap or some other exposed wire and fell off the chair, pulling the shocker and hot soldering iron on top of me. Luckily I did not get any serious injuries.

 

[theoldwizard1]

A kid in the neighborhood who was about 5 years old got a job with his uncle doing "finish" wiring (cut/strip leads, attach to screw terminals, but NOT insert in box and of course push a broom). Uncle was working on something when he walked up from behind, put a hand on a pipe and the other on uncle. Work up on the opposite side of the room. Uncle was "hot" but had no path to ground !

 

[CoogarXR]

I got a little jolt just yesterday. I was adding an outlet downstream from an existing outlet. I did it hot, because I was too lazy to go to my unmarked breaker box and holler "IS THAT IT?!?" over and over. When I pulled the outlet out, I wound the screw out on the hot wire but the wire wouldn't pop off. I grabbed my needle-nose and went to wriggle it loose and I must have bumped ground somewhere. It was just a tiny orange spark. Not a huge pop like used to see when I'd short something. Didn't even leave a mark on the pliers. These GFI breakers sure pop fast. Oh well, at least I know which breaker it is now!

 

[andyvh1959]

Never wire anything hot, right, RIGHT!??

Oh, I can do this if I'm careful and use rubber covered pliers and screwdrivers. Yeah right. My bet is we've all, or many of us have done this, and lived to tell about it. Luckily.

My 1st house I bought at age 20, with lots of bravado that I could fix whatever, including wiring. I rewired the house from the meter in, replacing the 60amp four fuse box with a 100amp 24 breaker main panel. I got everything done, initially wiring the new panel with a jumper from the old fuse panel. Once everything was done, my last action was to remove the old fuse panel which included a chunk of the original entrance cable from when the house was built in 1938.

My wife's grandfather had stopped by. He was an electrician by trade for decades, and a jokester from 1st day breathing. So we're down in the basement talking while I am pulling out some of the old, now disconnected wiring. Grandpa is watching me, from behind. I'm standing on a pail to reach up and snip the old cable with a large side cutters. Grandpa, had looked around and found two slats of wood, which he now held ready to slap together hard as soon as my side cutter bit into the cable, SNAP!!!!

Now, I knew the cable had no power to it. I knew both ends of the cable connected to nothing. Yet, HE knew I was young and working around wiring. After I picked myself up after jumping off the bucket, I turned to face grandpa's GOTCHA grinning face. Grandpa, you, you....sumna bi...., never forgot that.

 

[DeeKay]

Never wire anything hot, right, RIGHT!??

Oh, I can do this if I'm careful and use rubber covered pliers and screwdrivers. Yeah right. My bet is we've all, or many of us have done this, and lived to tell about it. Luckily.

My 1st house I bought at age 20, with lots of bravado that I could fix whatever, including wiring. I rewired the house from the meter in, replacing the 60amp four fuse box with a 100amp 24 breaker main panel. I got everything done, initially wiring the new panel with a jumper from the old fuse panel. Once everything was done, my last action was to remove the old fuse panel which included a chunk of the original entrance cable from when the house was built in 1938.

My wife's grandfather had stopped by. He was an electrician by trade for decades, and a jokester from 1st day breathing. So we're down in the basement talking while I am pulling out some of the old, now disconnected wiring. Grandpa is watching me, from behind. I'm standing on a pail to reach up and snip the old cable with a large side cutters. Grandpa, had looked around and found two slats of wood, which he now held ready to slap together hard as soon as my side cutter bit into the cable, SNAP!!!!

Now, I knew the cable had no power to it. I knew both ends of the cable connected to nothing. Yet, HE knew I was young and working around wiring. After I picked myself up after jumping off the bucket, I turned to face grandpa's GOTCHA grinning face. Grandpa, you, you....sumna bi...., never forgot that.

That's hilarious, If I'm in a panel I jump every single time I hear a loud noise or if my finger gets poked with a little piece of something. Even If I know for a fact there's no power

 

[CoogarXR]

Reminds me of a time back in the 1990s when I was delivering pizza. I was sent home because the business died off. But they gave me a beeper (1990s, lol) so they could call me back if it got busy again.

Well, I decided to crawl into my trunk and hook up my new amplifier. For my old amp setup, I had pulled a big-*** 0awg wire, and I had it connected to a fuse block in the trunk. I bought a bigger block for my new amplifier. I disconnected that big wire and as soon as I pulled it out, the work beeper went off in my pocket. A beeper vibrating in your pocket feels a lot like being shocked, lol. Well, what it feels like to be shocked by AC, but your brain isn't fast enough to be like "hey, this is DC, you won't get shocked like that". All you know is "big wire, buzzzzzz!". I let go of the wire and it hit ground, sparked around, I jumped up, hit my head on the trunk lid, good times.

 

[alfredeneuman]

When I was about 4 my Grandmother lived in a little house built in 1908 with a 30A 120V service meter and Edison base fuses. It was located in a combination service porch/breakfast nook.
It had a glass door on it and I climbed on the table to open it.
My mother caught me before I had it fully open..... I had heard something about a fuse blowing and wanted to feel the wind.

 

[engineer2]

In my first house I started remodeling the kitchen. There was a fan speed control I needed to remove from the wall. Strange, no electrical box behind it, just wires. I move it to get a better look. Blinding blue flash, loud ZOTT, a spray of molten copper. The previous owner had drilled a hole in the conduit (EMT) to tap into the kitchen light circuit. The jagged hole cut the wire insulation and created a dead short that melted the copper wire in half. The breaker never tripped. That's when I found out what Federal Pacific Electric circuit breakers were all about.

 

[andyvh1959]

Wow!! Amazing the house had not burned down, or worse killed someone, like you. Amazing what idiot home owners will do. And those same people are the ones that complain about codes and requirements and restrictions, and the costs to hire an electrician. Well, examples just like this is exactly why there are codes, regulations and restrictions.

Thing is, by the time whatever DS had gotten to the conduit at that point, it wouldn't have been a lot more work to modify the circuit, trim the conduit back properly and install a proper junction box.

 

[67CarGuy]

Only been hit twice (so far!). Once when I was helping my dad rewire an outlet, many moons ago. Breaker wasn't off for whatever reason, or maybe the wrong breaker was off. Either way, I got a nice little jolt. Didn't do any lasting damage, but certainly helped to instill some respect for those electrons.
The more recent one was while working on my drill press. I had already unplugged it, so I should be safe, right? Well, I guess not - while inserting a metal plug into the top of the column (I was installing the multi-speed pulley one of the GJ members sells) I got a very healthy zap that nearly knocked me off my ladder. Sat down and thought about life for a little while, let the adrenaline run its course, then finished the job after confirming (with my multimeter, no less!) that everything was truly dead. Still don't know where the charge came from on that one...

 

[Jinks]

Over 50 years ago I started working for Ma Bell. I started in a Central Office being trained by an old switch man that walked with a limp. EVERY time he worked on a power circuit he went to the fuse or circuit breaker, took it out & put it in his pocket. One day I asked him why he kept putting them in his pocket? He told me that in his younger years he had been up a ladder working on a circuit when on of the other switch men noticed the breaker was open. The guy closed it, the jolt knocked him off the ladder, broke his leg/hip, & he still limped from that. He pocketed the fuse/circuit breaker so it wouldn't happen again...