Reminds me of the supposedly dying art of scientific glasswork.
The San Franciso Fire Department makes its own wooden ladders by hand
101–110 of 341 posts
Re: The San Franciso Fire Department makes its own wooden ladders by hand
#102If you get a chance to visit a Smokejumper base, I highly recommend it. One of the things you learn is that everyone on the team is required to make all of their own equipment by hand. So all of these highly trained, ex-military guys spend days on end doing nothing but sewing clothes and packing parachutes. The reasons described: - Cheaper than contracting out everything - They have a better idea of the exact specifi…
My takeaway is that there are benefits to in-housing your own tools, not that everybody should.
There's also a middle-ground available in the software industry: reading the code of the open-source tools you use. You can understand how your tools work without rebuilding them from scratch. Also, if you're using open-source (which most people do these days), the "cheaper" argument doesn't apply.
Re: The San Franciso Fire Department makes its own wooden ladders by hand
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think there is a big difference between the pride of individual being a firefighter (many people feel this and are willing to take the job with no pay or benefits even though firefighters are at risk for a whole range of occupational induced diseases) and the pride a community feels for an organization and their willingness to support them.
Some communities simply can’t afford to pay a fire brigade, hence a volunteer squad where everyone chips in.
They can pay for it. They just don't want to increase taxes.
Re: The San Franciso Fire Department makes its own wooden ladders by hand
#104artisanal ladders
Artisanal Firewood https://youtu.be/TBb9O-aW4zI
Re: The San Franciso Fire Department makes its own wooden ladders by hand
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some communities simply can’t afford to pay a fire brigade, hence a volunteer squad where everyone chips in.
They can pay for it. They just don't want to increase taxes.
The tax base just isn't there sometimes. I've seen community budgets where everyone is hanging on by a thread. Not quite as bad as Native American reservations, but up there.
Re: The San Franciso Fire Department makes its own wooden ladders by hand
#106This site has an interesting detail: https://sf-fire.org/wooden-ladders > The largest ladder made by the artisans is 50 feet, weighs 350 pounds and takes six firefighters to lift.
I live near a fire station in SF, and see them practicing raising a huge 20+ foot ladder monthly out front of the station. They're pretty impressive ladders, and it looks like it takes quite a lot of coordination to raise them up.
Re: The San Franciso Fire Department makes its own wooden ladders by hand
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
> a job where 95% of the time is spent waiting for an emergency to react to. this describes quite accurately the work of many people maintaining computer systems
I must be maintaining the wrong systems, because over here 95% of the time is reacting to emergencies (some technical, but most fabricated by management)
I doubt you're working on the wrong systems, but working for the wrong people.
Re: The San Franciso Fire Department makes its own wooden ladders by hand
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
> one can't help but suspect that sheer tradition is a somewhat significant factor Only if you didn't read the article. "There's a city-specific reason why San Francisco has stuck with wood rather than swap over to metals, and the answer lies in looking up. The high-voltage cables and wires that guide the city's (oft-maligned) public transport system Muni, and trolley cars crisscross above nearly every street, mean t…
What kind of ladders do the power line companies use?
I work at a power company. For portable ladders, we use both wood and fiberglass. However we don't fight fires so we don't take fire or heat ratings into consideration and we maintain a minimum distance of 10' (or OSHA minimum approach distance for qualified electricians/linemen) between a ladder and anything energized.
Re: The San Franciso Fire Department makes its own wooden ladders by hand
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most ladders are fiber glass - which makes me wonder why any off the shelf ladder wouldn't suffice.
The film industry uses almost exclusively fiberglass as well. There's no shortage. They're swimming in those things. I would bet their lifespan is shorter than the wooden ladders, however. At least from what I've seen.
Fiberglass is reinforced plastic, though, so that might explain why it isn't used in FDs even if it's heavily used in other domains. How well does it hold up to heat? How does that exposure effect it structural properties? I honestly don't know and don't have time to look it up, but I could see thermal plastic deformation over such a long run as potentially hazardous.