Way OT...Just made me laugh!!

Found this recently when googling for suitable material to give a couple of guys some basic motor theory tuition...

Johnny worked in the gravel pit
Summer job and proud of it
Gonna make some money, buy a diamond ring
He was thinkin' 'bout Mary Lou
When he had his work to do
Slipped and fell and got pulled into the crusher machine
His legs were mangled when they hit the stop
Can't pull him out cause he'd die of shock
No one heard the words he said
Chorus:
Interchange two phases
Were the words poor Johnny cried
Thought he was delirious so they never tried
It can be red black or blue
Interchange just any two
Misunderstood to the very end
That's the way poor Johnny died
Ooh wah ooh, ooh wah ooh
Foreman's name was Rammy Kirk
Boss's son and a first class jerk
He says there's only one thing to do
That's to run him through
Better get his girlfriend here
Before we hit the gears
Give him pills just to ease the pain
Cause we're losin' time
Mary Lou was in her prime
She says "I'll love you til the end of time"
Johnny says "I love you too but please..."
Chorus:
Bridge:
Now Johnny knew his AC theory
Single and three phase
He knew what direction things go
He knew a three phase induction motor was easy to reverse
And likewise the machinery it drove
Johnny faded from consciousness
From loss of blood and the pills I guess
They drove Mary Lou home in tears
Not to see the end
Then they turned to the crusher machine
Turned it on and without a scream
They mixed Johnny with the gravel on the other end
Now he's part of highway 105
The road to Mary Lou's he used to drive
Out there still at night you can hear him say

Click to expand...

Motor reversing theory - in a song!!!
So funny!!

Maybe I'm a stick in the mud, but I fail to see any humor there.

I thought of commenting previous held off but will do so now.

IF you have investigated fatalities like I have then based on that alone there is nothing at all funny about this. I also firmly believe there are those (not many I hope) who could actually do something like this. Gives you a lot of faith in your fellow worker and your management doesn't it?

Given all the above I still find some element of humor in the original post - maybe 10% ??

Makes an argument for E stops and proper machine design and setup doesnt it?

Dan Bentler

Maybe its a british kind of humour, i read it.....

I have seen fatalaties, but it still made me laugh

So true, yet so sad....

Like Dan said

"I also firmly believe there are those (not many I hope) who could actually do something like this"

There are probably more than you would like to count..

it's just a song....and it was funny.

regardless of any 'real life tragedy' any one of us have witnessed, to lose your sense of humor is tragic in it's own right.

The song was obviously made up.... not so funny if taken literally, but HOW on EARTH could you take it literally?

So then taken as humor it seems to go on too long... but that's a matter of taste I guess.

ANNYYYYWWWAAAYYYYYY.......

The real point I wanted to make was THIS: Sometimes something a little shocking or ghastly will IMPRESS the message on a trainee better than a stodgy, droll instruction.

I doubt whether even BUBBA would forget that you can reverse a motor by switching any two phases after hearing or reading that story. A even DEEPER lesson may be inferred from the fact that someone who KNEW the answer couldn't get the message across to callous standers-by.........

It's really not that different than the countless other folk tales we've all heard about cables breaking and slicing a man in half, or "BIG BAD JOHN" holding up the mine timber......

just my 2

Stationmaster

Another deep lesson from the song might be that a crusher (stamping presses, conveyors, balers, and other dangerous machinery) should have a reverse switch, just in case....

Of course, for most of these things, if you get pulled in, you are dead, not half dead as in the song.

Emergency Stops
A little of topic I know but please help me out here....

Does anyone out there have plastic hinged covers over the emergency stop buttons on operator consoles? We have several of the AB 800T style E-Stop Push-Pull buttons throughout our facility (typical manufacturing plant). Most of them have the aluminum ring around them to prevent accidental activations. However, due to 2 or 3 events where this type of accident has happened, management has decided to completely cover the e-stops with some type of clear plastic hinged guard. They claim that there is another facility very simliar to ours that has these in place and is a OSHA VPP Star site. Is this possible? Anyone out there using any style of guard that competely covers the e-stop?
What about the "initiated by a single human action" as described in NFPA 79?

See this thread!!!!!!!!
No E-Stops, no reversing switches, just go through and get it over with.
Someone forward this to upper mangement please!
They'll be thrilled!

bkottaras said:

Does anyone out there have plastic hinged covers over the emergency stop buttons on operator consoles?

Click to expand...

We have several of them... but they are over the start button, not the stop

Mnemonics are a good way of rembering theory, here is one I was taught 35 years ago:

Black Beards R*pe Our Young Girls But Virgins Go Without.

Resistor color codes, the "Yank" version:

Bad Boys Rape Our Young Girls, But Violet Gives Willingly!

(No virgins here!)

Safety? whassat?

bkottaras said:

Emergency Stops
A little of topic I know but please help me out here....

Does anyone out there have plastic hinged covers over the emergency stop buttons on operator consoles? We have several of the AB 800T style E-Stop Push-Pull buttons throughout our facility (typical manufacturing plant). Most of them have the aluminum ring around them to prevent accidental activations. However, due to 2 or 3 events where this type of accident has happened, management has decided to completely cover the e-stops with some type of clear plastic hinged guard. They claim that there is another facility very simliar to ours that has these in place and is a OSHA VPP Star site. Is this possible? Anyone out there using any style of guard that competely covers the e-stop?
What about the "initiated by a single human action" as described in NFPA 79?

See this thread!!!!!!!!
No E-Stops, no reversing switches, just go through and get it over with.
Someone forward this to upper mangement please!
They'll be thrilled!

Click to expand...

Yeah thats a great idea prolly from upper management put a cover on an ESTOP! lol................now put the bosses hand in the machine and count how long he screams while you fiddle with the cover that got stuck.

If you want to eliminate pesky false stops just put a jumper across the ESTOP contacts.

You can't take them out though, ....................that would be un safe.

WTF is wrong with people..................when is it a good idea to put a time delay on and EMERGENCY STOP???????????????

Why not put a 15 second delay in the software? just to make sure they really meant to push it.

Lancie1 said:

Resistor color codes, the "Yank" version:

Bad Boys Rape Our Young Girls, But Violet Gives Willingly!

(No virgins here!)

Click to expand...

That's ABOUT the same as I heard it Lancie:

Bad Boys Rape Other Young Girls, But Violet Gives Willingly,

accentuating the old adage that "you can't rape the willing".

Stationmaster

Staionmaster,

"Other young girls" does fit in the sentence better.

I first heard that version of the [EDIT: mnemonic] about 1968 from the instructor in a Circuits class. I think it is like that old Gossip game. Bits of information get passed on, but slightly changed from the original.

I'll second that! Basic DC Theory 1971 for me....

Like the crusher song.... it WORKS so it STICKS!