Colorblind electricians???
- Thread starter VegasSparky
- Start date
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MAK
Senior Member
- Location
- Massachusetts-Boston
I'm sure that would spark some memories in Mass.http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/31/boston.bombscare/index.htmlLawnGuyLandSparky said:
:roll:MAK said:I'm sure that would spark some memories in Mass.
More than just the eastern seaboard. It made the national news.
I also recall a story from a few years back where a guy was boarding a plane. Security was checking his carry-on stuff and found, as mentioned, an alarm clock with wires and 4 red sticks attached to it. The clock was manufactured that way, and was promoted as an extra-loud alarm clock to wake those who don't respond to 'normal' alarm clocks. The wires and 4 red sticks were non-functional, but was designed that way to market the clocks to those who could 'sleep through a bomb going off'.
Apparently, the poor guy spent hours being interrogated, missed his flight, and filed charges. I don't recall the outcome, though.
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VegasSparky
Member
LawnGuy, service work is pretty easy. You can deduce what the wires are. Let's say you have a j-box that the circuits are energized. For some reason, the ground isn't bonded to the box. 277/480 systems give me problems identifying grey and green. The grey will have a load on it, usually. you can turn on one device on that phase group and put a load on the neutral. Now I know witch one is grey and green. You just identify the wires by function not color.
- Location
- Windsor, CO NEC: 2017
- Occupation
- Service Manager
Not unless you were driving your truck.brantmacga said:
Colors
Colors
Each wire has a long series of letter and numbers printed on it. Some are obvious like AWG and what it is resistant to -- water, gasoline, oil and so on. But there is also some kindof manufacturer's number on it and I have a hunch that these numbers would be different for each different colot of wire.
Furthermore, it is a little known fact but each color of insulation has its own distinctive flavor. But you have to remove the transparent nylon sheathe to savor it.
These are:
White -- Vanilla
Black -- Licorice
Red -- Strawberry
Blue -- Grape
Yellow -- Banana
Orange -- Orange!
Brown -- Chocolate
Green -- Spearmint
Also, the smells are of similar pattern but again you have to remove the nylon. Not many do that.
~Peter
Colors
Each wire has a long series of letter and numbers printed on it. Some are obvious like AWG and what it is resistant to -- water, gasoline, oil and so on. But there is also some kindof manufacturer's number on it and I have a hunch that these numbers would be different for each different colot of wire.
Furthermore, it is a little known fact but each color of insulation has its own distinctive flavor. But you have to remove the transparent nylon sheathe to savor it.
These are:
White -- Vanilla
Black -- Licorice
Red -- Strawberry
Blue -- Grape
Yellow -- Banana
Orange -- Orange!
Brown -- Chocolate
Green -- Spearmint
Also, the smells are of similar pattern but again you have to remove the nylon. Not many do that.
~Peter
Rampage_Rick
Senior Member
- Location
- British Columbia, Canada
cotton candy, blueberry icecream, curdled milk480sparky said:
And you wondered why white was the preferred color?
VegasSparky
Member
I'm not falling for that one again!peter said:
MichaelGP3
Senior Member
- Location
- San Francisco bay area
- Occupation
- Fire Alarm Technician
Call me funny, call me old fashioned......
Call me funny, call me old fashioned......
And you should know I like jokes as much as anyone else. Having said that.......
........ it's a known fact that a wire's pvc insulating jacket contains lead. I remember a workshop presented at Local 6 in San Francisco more than 10 or 12 years ago where it was demonstrated that detectable levels of lead in one's system & memory loss (never a good thing) were correlated with the occasional practice of using one's teeth to strip a wire, or using pieces of stripped, scrap wire jackets to pick one's teeth. But hey, correct me if I'm wrong......
Call me funny, call me old fashioned......
And you should know I like jokes as much as anyone else. Having said that.......
peter said:
........ it's a known fact that a wire's pvc insulating jacket contains lead. I remember a workshop presented at Local 6 in San Francisco more than 10 or 12 years ago where it was demonstrated that detectable levels of lead in one's system & memory loss (never a good thing) were correlated with the occasional practice of using one's teeth to strip a wire, or using pieces of stripped, scrap wire jackets to pick one's teeth. But hey, correct me if I'm wrong......
color blind electricians
color blind electricians
Are there any manufacturers of that actually state the obvious on the wire, by telling what color it is. They print so much other info on it that it couldn't be that much more expensive to print the actual color on the wire... and they could market the fact that there would be less confusion. I would buy it for my projects.
-Matt
color blind electricians
Are there any manufacturers of that actually state the obvious on the wire, by telling what color it is. They print so much other info on it that it couldn't be that much more expensive to print the actual color on the wire... and they could market the fact that there would be less confusion. I would buy it for my projects.
-Matt
VegasSparky
Member
That's a good idea, mpross. I've also thought about having standardized shades of colors. Always have red as bright red, green as pea-green, brown as dark brown. Only use white for neutral. I'm colorblind, but with this standardization, I could get by just fine. However, it would probably be less expensive to just print the color on the wire.
VegasSparky said:
Yea. Sometimes I'll ask for four spools of wire. I get one pink, one red, one maroon and one Midnight Minnesota Magenta. For blue, I'll get sky blue, baby blue, navy blue and royal blue. And green runs from puke green, snot green, antifreeze green and fluorescent green.
Maybe the folks in the factory should not be allowed to use the boxes of 120 colors of crayons, and stick to the basic 16.
..........................
VegasSparky
Member
Ha ha...Exactly, 480. It seems like it should be an easy fix.
Rampage_Rick
Senior Member
- Location
- British Columbia, Canada
Color Vision Confusion
Color Vision Confusion
The girls at work chide me for running around in this jacket, although mine only has the silver retroreflective tape without the orange highlights:
One would think that they could come out with some kind of LED flashlight targeted to specific color impairments.
For example, if you had trouble distinguishing red and green, wouldn't a red light source make the red appear brighter and the green dimmer? Same goes for blue/green; a yellow source should appear brighter on green, dimmer on blue. Of course, in a well-lit area, a color filter might work better than a flashlight. Another option might be fluorescence; some colors will appear far brighter under blue or UV LEDs. You should see my jacket under blue light...
For a different perspective on things:
Go here: http://colorfilter.wickline.org/
Paste the following URL: (I didn't want it truncated)
Choose "deutanopia"
Color Vision Confusion
Even if they standardized on snot green, there might be color variation between buzzard, yahk, and hippie; also left or right nostril.480sparky said:
The girls at work chide me for running around in this jacket, although mine only has the silver retroreflective tape without the orange highlights:
One would think that they could come out with some kind of LED flashlight targeted to specific color impairments.
For example, if you had trouble distinguishing red and green, wouldn't a red light source make the red appear brighter and the green dimmer? Same goes for blue/green; a yellow source should appear brighter on green, dimmer on blue. Of course, in a well-lit area, a color filter might work better than a flashlight. Another option might be fluorescence; some colors will appear far brighter under blue or UV LEDs. You should see my jacket under blue light...
For a different perspective on things:
Go here: http://colorfilter.wickline.org/
Paste the following URL: (I didn't want it truncated)
Choose "deutanopia"
Code:
http://www.ecmweb.com/product_depot/color_closeup_195.jpg
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tallguy
Senior Member
This is a great way to demonstrate to others what it's like to be colorblind, for sure. Very eye opening (no pun intended).Rampage_Rick said:
I'm a bit dense though, and it took me a couple tries to figure out exactly what you were saying about the link. Others can see your wire example by clicking here for the "deutanopia" version and here for the original.
Rampage_Rick said:
Color standardization would be quite easy, actually.
.......................................
Red, for instance, could be standardized to reflect light at a wavelength measured at 650 nanometers.
Blue: 475 nm.
Green: 510 nm.
Purple/violet: 400 nm.
Orange: 590 nm.
Yellow: 570 nm.
Couple those numbers with refelctivity values (brightness) and they'd all be the same.
I think, however, that the manufacturers would be hard-pressed to adopt such standards.
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