Electricity pylons require to be repainted, with two coats, on a regular basis. When a pylon is being painted, the men who are assigned this task do not have the luxury of having the power switched off, so the wires keep on buzzing, dangerously, all the while. Obviously, this means that having lots of climbing-gear style ropes and tackle a no no; you don't fly a kite near pylons. As a result, the poor buggers with the pots of paint have to free-climb up and down the gunmetal grey framework, carrying paint pots and brushes. Sometimes, the men fall, tumbling down, limbs and bodies smashing hard into unyielding steel struts, twisting, tumbling down blow by blow, until they lie, dead or dying, bones as paste, in the wet grass below. As their colleagues clamber down, crows draw close.
So, what is needed is some means of conveniently attaching painter to pylon, without ropes trailing, and in such a way as to allow the painter to quickly detach and re-attach. For this, I propose a hard rubber torso-and-arms exoskellington, running along the back and shoulders of the painter, being hinged and secured as is appropriate for such a contraption, with large caribiner clips (or maybe just hooks) jutting from the wrist section, over the hands of the painter. Thus, they can swing from strut to strut, safe and secure, like the boilersuit-clad omangutans they nearly are.-- calum, Jan 19 2006 A pylon, yesterday http://www.ecopraxi...ssets/Pylon%201.jpgon the off chance that it's a terminological parochialism [calum, Jan 19 2006] Kirkham Jackson: Silvering-up http://www.mickjack...on/kirk-silver.html [calum, Jan 19 2006] Pole safety https://youtu.be/mFiry3IPhec [pashute, Mar 19 2019] Pylon climber https://youtu.be/kFk_bomd78w [pashute, Mar 19 2019] Pylon climber looses nerve needs help and falls during rescue https://youtu.be/S9cKW-2ytTc [pashute, Mar 19 2019] Trimming trees along power line with giant suspended circular saw array https://www.youtube...watch?v=Pla06PO6OdkMentioned in my anno [notexactly, Mar 28 2019] Whilst reading the first paragraph, I nearly fell to my desk so that the office crows could move in.
Good idea, do they really not have any form of protection outside of apeness?-- skinflaps, Jan 19 2006 [+] for omangutans. The idea is good also. Surprised there isn't somethig in existence already what with all the safety laws-- nth, Jan 19 2006 Back from the Dominican Republic only 24 hours ago and posting already, [calum]?
Nice to see you're focused on clearing the mountain of paperwork on your desk!-- salachair, Jan 19 2006 IIRC, that's the way it was depicted in 1998's "Among Giants" with Pete Postlethwaite, but I hesitated to cite that film as a definitive source since it is my only exposure to the exciting world of pylon painting.-- jurist, Jan 21 2006 Wouldn't it be safer to do it from a distance, say with paintball guns? Or crop-spraying helicopters, adapted for paint.-- coprocephalous, Jan 21 2006 I thought all pylons were made of galvanised steel, to avoid the need for painting?
And wow - I love those pole-climbing hook-boots in the third link!-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 19 2019 I would expect they'd use the same kind of carabiners or hooks used by people who climb antenna masts to do maintenance on them. One of the links might show this.
Alternatively, if these pylons really do need painting—and I've never noticed one either being painted or being painted —they could use the same helicopters they already use for trimming the tree branches along the route of the line (you know, with giant suspended circular saw arrays [link]).-- notexactly, Mar 19 2019 random, halfbakery