Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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I always chuckled to myself when my suburban neighbors would rail against the cell tower going up miles away, complaining how it would forever scar their landscape. They had long since stopped noticing that their beautiful neighborhood was threaded through with ugly sagging wires hung from 30 foot tall unevenly creosoted pilings leaning every which way and visible from virtually every window in their perfect houses. And just to add insult to injury, a few sagging cables would also run from the closest pole to those houses, randomly tacked onto the side somewhere in the crudest manner possible.
The medium-sized city where I live now started burying overhead wires in 1948. Other than high-voltage power lines feeding substations, they got to 100% buried in the late 1990s. They’ve dropped to less than 100% currently due to annexations, but have a line item in the city budget to cover burying those. In addition to the improved appearance, the electric power is absolutely the cleanest and most reliable of any place I’ve ever lived. In 26 months, the power hasn’t blinked badly enough to reset the appliance clocks even once.
The story behind the program is that in 1948 the business folks in one square block of downtown paid out of their own pockets to have the wires buried. People liked the look so much that the city found itself committed to burying the wires everywhere.
@Mister Bluster: I had to have one of my utility poles replaced recently. The co-op sent out an electrical engineer beforehand to make sure they understood exactly what they were going to fix. He was missing an ear and most of the left side of his face was melted. Pretty graphic example of what can happen to one.
I can see what drew your eye to this shot. Personally, I kept peering through the foreground trying to get to the play of light in the clouds. Frequently that’s what I seem to do in life. Stunning and disturbing in equal parts to me. YMMV, but a thumbs up from Luddite!
Interesting. It’s instantly identifiable as NOT in Britain; or anywhere in western Europe for that matter.
I wonder why the electricity infrastructure evolved so differently?
Surely those transformers are a bit vulnerable to extreme weather?
@OzarkHillbilly:..Pretty graphic example of what can happen to one.
If I am home when the tree trimming crews are working along the power lines in the easement in front of my home I go out and talk to them and tell them to go ahead and do their job. Unlike some of my (now deceased) neighbors who would always give them a hard time. One time I met guy who was working on a two man crew as an apprentice tree trimmer. He was probably in his 20s. We all worked out of the same union hall. Our conversation was brief but we exchanged names and they went about their business.
It wasn’t even a week later when I heard a report on the radio about a utility worker up in a bucket truck who was killed when his tree saw came in contact with a power line on a street in town. It was the apprentice that I had just met in front of my home. Gave me the creeps.
@JohnSF:..Surely those transformers are a bit vulnerable to extreme weather?
I can only speak of the transformer on the pole in front of my place. Squirrels have caused it to fail at least twice despite the lineman placing a squirrel guard on it after the first time it went out.
Last year a light bulb burned out in the horizontal light bar directly above my bathroom sink. No biggie. I have a replacement.
I use the old-timey (super expensive) Edison bulbs because I like the look and the slightly orange tungsten glow. I think they look super bad-ass.
As I went unscrew the dead bulb it stuck. As I was was lefty loosey unscrewing the bulb it popped out and sagged down held up in place by a bit of bare wire and the metal bit you screw into the socket was still stuck firmly in the socket.
Well, ain’t that a bother! I did not see that happenstance coming at all. I have lost all leverage. I eyeballed it and reckoned I could pinch the edge and unscrew the metal bit. The leverage would be difficult, but let’s give it a try.
My right hand was 90 percent there of the way reaching up before my brain kicked in with “LIVE ELECTRICITY! STOP!” I stopped. Barely.
My brain was deep in problem-solving mode and saw a possible solution and went for it. Thankfully, another part of my brain kicked in just in time, but it was damn close. What an idiot!
That sumbitch was a huge pain in the butt to unscrew. I shut off main power to the entire house just to be sure. I had to use needle nose pliers. No window in that bathroom so I needed a light source. It took forever to unscrew that sucker.
Think about it. When you screw in a new light bulb you do about four or five or six righty tighties to secure it properly, so you need the same amount of lefty loosies to undo that. Physics.
It was incredibly annoying and I said many very profane swear words out loud before the job was finished. Holy crap that was extremely frustrating!
I always chuckled to myself when my suburban neighbors would rail against the cell tower going up miles away, complaining how it would forever scar their landscape. They had long since stopped noticing that their beautiful neighborhood was threaded through with ugly sagging wires hung from 30 foot tall unevenly creosoted pilings leaning every which way and visible from virtually every window in their perfect houses. And just to add insult to injury, a few sagging cables would also run from the closest pole to those houses, randomly tacked onto the side somewhere in the crudest manner possible.
The medium-sized city where I live now started burying overhead wires in 1948. Other than high-voltage power lines feeding substations, they got to 100% buried in the late 1990s. They’ve dropped to less than 100% currently due to annexations, but have a line item in the city budget to cover burying those. In addition to the improved appearance, the electric power is absolutely the cleanest and most reliable of any place I’ve ever lived. In 26 months, the power hasn’t blinked badly enough to reset the appliance clocks even once.
The story behind the program is that in 1948 the business folks in one square block of downtown paid out of their own pockets to have the wires buried. People liked the look so much that the city found itself committed to burying the wires everywhere.
Well done, Steven.
@Michael Cain: I wish they would do that here, but I suspect the cost would be prohibitive, due to the # of customers per mile of line.
reddy kilowatt sez: “This is my playground!”
The Electricians Prayer:
Volts, Watts, Amps and Ohms.
Stay within your proper homes
Don’t you touch my gleaming bones
Volts, Watts, Amps and Ohms!
@Mister Bluster: I had to have one of my utility poles replaced recently. The co-op sent out an electrical engineer beforehand to make sure they understood exactly what they were going to fix. He was missing an ear and most of the left side of his face was melted. Pretty graphic example of what can happen to one.
I can see what drew your eye to this shot. Personally, I kept peering through the foreground trying to get to the play of light in the clouds. Frequently that’s what I seem to do in life. Stunning and disturbing in equal parts to me. YMMV, but a thumbs up from Luddite!
Interesting. It’s instantly identifiable as NOT in Britain; or anywhere in western Europe for that matter.
I wonder why the electricity infrastructure evolved so differently?
Surely those transformers are a bit vulnerable to extreme weather?
@OzarkHillbilly:..Pretty graphic example of what can happen to one.
If I am home when the tree trimming crews are working along the power lines in the easement in front of my home I go out and talk to them and tell them to go ahead and do their job. Unlike some of my (now deceased) neighbors who would always give them a hard time. One time I met guy who was working on a two man crew as an apprentice tree trimmer. He was probably in his 20s. We all worked out of the same union hall. Our conversation was brief but we exchanged names and they went about their business.
It wasn’t even a week later when I heard a report on the radio about a utility worker up in a bucket truck who was killed when his tree saw came in contact with a power line on a street in town. It was the apprentice that I had just met in front of my home. Gave me the creeps.
@JohnSF:..Surely those transformers are a bit vulnerable to extreme weather?
I can only speak of the transformer on the pole in front of my place. Squirrels have caused it to fail at least twice despite the lineman placing a squirrel guard on it after the first time it went out.
Last year a light bulb burned out in the horizontal light bar directly above my bathroom sink. No biggie. I have a replacement.
I use the old-timey (super expensive) Edison bulbs because I like the look and the slightly orange tungsten glow. I think they look super bad-ass.
As I went unscrew the dead bulb it stuck. As I was was lefty loosey unscrewing the bulb it popped out and sagged down held up in place by a bit of bare wire and the metal bit you screw into the socket was still stuck firmly in the socket.
Well, ain’t that a bother! I did not see that happenstance coming at all. I have lost all leverage. I eyeballed it and reckoned I could pinch the edge and unscrew the metal bit. The leverage would be difficult, but let’s give it a try.
My right hand was 90 percent there of the way reaching up before my brain kicked in with “LIVE ELECTRICITY! STOP!” I stopped. Barely.
My brain was deep in problem-solving mode and saw a possible solution and went for it. Thankfully, another part of my brain kicked in just in time, but it was damn close. What an idiot!
That sumbitch was a huge pain in the butt to unscrew. I shut off main power to the entire house just to be sure. I had to use needle nose pliers. No window in that bathroom so I needed a light source. It took forever to unscrew that sucker.
Think about it. When you screw in a new light bulb you do about four or five or six righty tighties to secure it properly, so you need the same amount of lefty loosies to undo that. Physics.
It was incredibly annoying and I said many very profane swear words out loud before the job was finished. Holy crap that was extremely frustrating!