Thursday Ramble: Changing a light bulb

A true tale.  I moved to the Space Coast of Florida a few years after black-Friday. When the Apollo project finished NASA terminated 10,000 employees one Friday - locally known as black-Friday.  The surrounding communities of 20,000- 30,000 residents took years to recover.  There were Phd physicists teaching in the public schools so they didn't have to move away from a place they had grown to call home.  

I went to work in a local real estate office, and one of my office mates was an electrician, who had worked on the launch systems for the moon rockets.  He was selling real estate, doing a little electrical work on the side, and hoping he could return to full time electrical work.  There were only a handful of full time industrial electrician positions on the Space Coast.  

He had done some thrilling things like connect the power to the external ignitors under the Saturn V that assure that those main engines fire when the fuel starts flowing.  He got to talking one day, and said, "How many people does it take to change a light bulb on launch pad 39B?" 

First someone fills out a form reporting a light out of service. 

Then an electrician verifies that the light bulb is burned out, and it is not an electrical supply or switch problem.  

Then the access crew is dispatched to set up a ladder. 

Then the electrician returns to disassemble the light fixture, laying the parts out on a soft pad on the a flat surface. 

Then a supervisor sends out janitorial, to clean
the fixture. 

Then the electrician is sent out to replace the burned out bulb and reinstall the fixture. 

Then the access crew goes back and removes the ladder, 

Then janitorial goes back and cleans the area. 

And a supervisor inspects and verifies that the work has been completed properly. 

So three workmen, plus supervisors, at least 9 steps, more if there are any questions or concerns along the way, such as a crack in the glass on the fixture, and he said, "you don't want to know how many pages of paperwork!"