The Lineman Knowledge Quiz

You would be hard pressed to find a lineman who doesn't wear a safety harness, and if you do see one, he or she will soon be out of a job. Safety is the very top priority in this field.

Linemen have an interesting slang all of their own. A "Goatskin" is a tarp that is used to cover jobs that are left for periods of time when the weather is bad and could cause damage.

A D-Belt is used by all linemen when climbing poles and towers for positioning. These belts support their lower back and allow them to lean back and work with both hands, which matters on this type of job.

While there isn't a lot of formal education needed, they do want to know that you stuck with something and succeeded. Almost all linemen jobs require one to have at least a grade 12 education.

This is another example of how funny, interesting and unique linemen slang can be. Moles spend most of their time underground, so all workers who do underground work go by that nickname.

This is another great example of the slang that linemen use every day on the job. Sure, you're OK if you just know what a platform board is, but if you call it a baker board you get extra points.

Some of these slang words make no sense to the average person, while others, like this one for example, do. You have to admit a shovel looks a bit like a banjo. At least kind of anyway.

While a lineman might not get a whole lot of grief at work if they were reading a real Bible, it probably wouldn't help them a whole lot. What they mean when they say "Bible" is a codebook.

Being a lineman is a difficult job and one that can be dangerous and come with an enormous responsibility. It can take up to 4 years before a worker is considered fully trained for the job.

You have to be 18 years old to be a lineman, but that doesn't mean there is nothing you can do while in high school. A local career center might be able to set you up with some training to get you ready for the job.

All of us see these poles every day, but do most of us ever actually try and figure out how tall they are? Most of the electrical poles you're going to see are going to be right around 40 feet.

If a pole is sticking 40 feet high out of the ground, it needs to be deep enough in the ground to keep it stable. Most poles are set around 6 feet deep, which is enough to keep them safe and secure.

A lot of us don't pay attention to things around us, while others do. If you have ever noticed the transformers on the poles, they are to reduce voltage. There is a lot of energy there that needs to be harnessed.

The whole mechanism of how energy gets into your house is rather amazing. Insulators are used to protect the pole from the dangerous effects of electricity flowing through conductors.

You might not think of a guy wire as being all that important, but they really are. They help keep the pole stable and safe from falling down and when you think of it, what is more important than that?

The only thing we can come up with here is that linemen just get bored like everyone else. Why else would they call a neutral wire by the name "booger wire"? Electricians use this, too.

This is probably why you need 4 years of training. If you didn't would you think a wire was called "baloney"? Although who knows, maybe you could pick that up on the very first day.

We have already established that "baloney" is lineman slang for wire, so what could a baloney bender be? Why someone who carries heavy wire of course. Picture someone carrying wire and you'll get it.

When you think of linemen, you might not think of staples. Why would they need those? Well the wires have to be placed somehow, and large industrial-sized staples are what keep them in place.

A lot of what linemen do is tough macho work, and dangerous as well, but a lot of it involves a lot of precision. A "bookie wheel" is something that is used to do very precise measurements.

While there tends to be a lot of stability in this sort of business, there also can be a lot of movement from job to job. A "Boomer' is someone who for whatever reason tends to move around a lot.

When it comes to baseball, a bullpen is where relief pitchers hang out before, and sometimes after they pitch. For linemen, the bullpen serves the same purpose, someplace to congregate.

While you might wonder how a lot of things got their names, the cherry picker isn't one of them. This is the type of truck needed to work way up high, like, you know, picking cherries.

A drifter is the type of lineman who wants to travel a lot. This is not unheard of in this industry, as often linemen move around the country to help in times of massive electrical outages.

While sometimes it's easy to just look at the electricity all around us and not care where it comes from, it all comes from a power plant somewhere. Do you know where your electrical source is?

The definition of a distribution line is a line or system for distributing power from a transmission system to a consumer. You see these all the time, without these there is no power.

The transmission lines are crucial to the whole process of how electricity gets to your home or business. A transmission substation exists to connect two or more transmission lines.

Another thing that you might not think about often is whether the amount of wires that you see are important. The answer is yes they are, which is why there are just about always three of them.

240 volts is the max for your home. Voltages may vary from 110 to 120 on a single line conductor and from 220 to 240 volts on a conductor pair. But often the active measured voltage doesn't hit 120.

Linemen are known to put in an incredible amount of overtime, especially in areas where the power is known to go out because of bad weather. If you're willing to put in the hours, you can make a lot of money.

Being a lineman is a very dangerous job. Studies are done year after year and line workers are just about always in the top 10 most dangerous professions based on annual fatalities.

This one is a bit surprising, but it is because not all that many young people take on this job. Being a lineman is the type of thing people tend to do for life, so the average age is around 50.

While being a lineman isn't the most difficult occupation to get into, there are standards and one of them is how old you are. You have to be at least 18 years old to be a lineman.

Duke Energy has its corporate offices in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 2016 its net assets were listed at $132.76 billion. It is one of the largest energy corporations in the world.