I was watching the work of three power company guys, each in his own articulating bucket, replacing a transformer on a pole. Two of the workers had shoulder to fingertip, heavy rubber gloves, for a better word., and they looked to be very cumbersome to work with. I am assuming that they are some sort of ground protection. My question involves the third man. He was only wearing one ‘glove’, and continued to do that until they were finished the installation. Why just one ‘glove’, if they are shock protection?
Was he working with two hands? I was taught in electronics school in the navy to work on live equipment with one hand. With two there is the potential to ground one hand while contacts a live conductor which will cause current to flow through the least resistive path… through the heart.
In grade school we had a lineman come in to talk to us about his job, demonstrate climbing a pole, etc.
Part of his talk was showing off his gloves. Now this has been a LONG time ago, but I recall for sure that it was a layered set what the layers were is a little fuzzy. Maybe Silk, rubber, then leather, and maybe a fourth optional layer for winter.
Anyway, they are insulation, and can be used up to a limited voltage, certainly up to 6.5KV used for residential distribution. When live work is required on lines too hot for the gloves, a “hot stick” is used. This is a long insulated pole with various attachments for the end. It is clumsy, so only limited things can be done (like replacing fuses). Complex work requires an outage.
Yep - first rule of electrical work. Live wires - one hand…
OK, lets reverse my question. Why were two of the workers wearing two gloves each?
There was an interesting History Channel documentory on today’s methods of working on transmission lines while they are energised.
On method is with an insulated bucket. The bucket is conductive and mounted on a crane of the type mentioned in the OP. The bucket is raised to the lines and a conductive cable is fastened between the line and the bucket by the lineman. This brings line and bucket to the same potential and the work can be done bare handed or with just ordinary gloves to protect agains knicks and scratches. When the work is finished the bucket-line link is disonnected and the bucket is removed from the area of the line, the connecting link is then connected from bucket to ground to make sure it is discharged and the crew steps out of the bucket onto the ground.
Another method was shown for really high voltage lines of the type that have three cables for each leg of the line. A helicopter took the crew to the lines. The same sort of cable connects the helicopter to the leg being worked on. In the film, when the guy reached out with the gripper to connect to the line a spark about a foot long jumped from gripper to line until the two were solidly connected. The crew then gets out onto the line, fastens some safety belts to keep from falling and does its work while on the line. The chopper then picks them up by reversing the procedure.
It even showed them replacing an insulator section by this method. While the insulator was out of service the line was supported by an insulated cradle mounted on a crane. Very impressive.
Insulators are now also cleaned by helicopter. On a trip to San Bernardino one day we say this chopper spraying cleaning fluid on the insulators of a high voltage line north of Victorville. Along the road paralleling the line there was a big tank truck and as we looked back after passing the truck we saw the chopper land to take on a new load of cleaner.
Linemen wear a glove on each hand while working in energized areas. I know of no reason why a lineman would wear only one glove. Either the one glove lineman was far enough away from the the line or he was in serious violation of safety rules.
[Barehand Hijack]
Barehand work is based on the concept that the lineman is working on an insulated plateform and cannot accidently contact anythin that is grounded. Similar to birds on a wire, the lineman has no ill effects while working on an energized line.
I once “bare-handed” 435kV in a high voltage lab. I had to put on a farraday suit (looks like a jogging outfit made out of window screen material), climb an insulated ladder and then hook a “tail” from my suit to the energized wire. The suit had elastic bands at the base of the legs. The corona dischage coming off of my exposed ankles felt like a brisk breeze was blowing on my ankles. This was due to the fact that the charging current leaks out at points the furthest away from the metal suit.
I grabbed the wire with my bare hand and surprised the lab technician by giving the energized conductor a little kiss. The tech said that they had been giving the barehand demo to hundreds of engineering students over the years and that I was the first one he knew of who gave it a kiss.
My classmate who attended another class session said that they let him grab the conductor with one hane and then stretch hi other hand as far away from the conductor as possible (picture a person forming a T with his body). Then they dimmed the lights in the lab and my friend saw a blue corona discharge coming off of his fingertips.
[/Barehand Hijack]
Tou are talking about gloves and sleeves used in the POWER industry.
Those gloves,cotton covered by rubber ,covered by leather meant that your chance of going home to the wife kids at the end of the day was pretty good.
The sleeves were to protect arm contact when reaching around,or between, hot lines.
The rubber gloves were color coded as to their insulating value--------black,up to 11 kv,red up to ,if recall correctly, either 25/33 kv.
The leathers were to protect the rubber from being weakened or perforated by material handling. Any pinhole or deep scratch and they wee only good for car washing.
Wore them for almost 40 years in the power game and,off and on,[excuse the pun]were the most respected tools in my warbag
AND,unlike the electronics field, you were in constant danger of contact with
thouands of megawatts of power,just roaring to be turned loose on the unwary!
EZ
Another purpose to the layers was for inspecting them to ensure they’ve not been damaged. To do this, wrap the cuff of the glove around a hammer handle or similar stick and roll it to “inflate” the glove with the trapped air. Look very carefully for any of the lining color. If you see any of the lining color, as **Ezstrete ** says, it’s a car-wash glove.
FWIW, I’ve got an old pair with bright yellow inside, which makes spotting damage somewhat easier.