Construction electricians install electric wiring and related devices, lighting fixtures, and numerous types of electrical equipment; they make the electrical connections to electrical machinery, equipment, etc., and its control apparatus. On a large job there are drawings showing the various circuits and the approximate location of outlets, load centers, panel boards, etc., plus specifications describing the materials to be used. On small jobs the electric outlets may be indicated on the general drawings, there may be a simple sketch, or there may be merely a verbal statement of what is wanted.

Whether the job is large or small, the elec'trician must follow the electrical laws of the State and, unless it is in a small community, the municipal electrical ordinances. For example, under most codes he installs metal boxes wherever there is to be an outlet or switch. If a conduit system is used, the wiring is enclosed in metal pipes (or conduits) connecting the metal boxes. Frequently, instead of conduit systems, wires wrapped with a continuous strip of steel ("BX") or with a flameproof fabric are used, but the codes (laws and ordinances) specify that certain minimum requirements must be met both in the material

building, the electrical installation is better than the minimum called for by the State or municipal electrical code. Unless there is an electrical drawing showing which outlets are to be on each circuit, the electrician arranges them according to his own judgment so that the loads will be properly distributed and no circuit will have a heavier load than is suitable for the gauge (diameter) of wire used. A somewhat different class of construction work is heavy electrical installations at power plants, steel mills, and other establishments with unusually large electrical requirements. Such work is done mainly by journeymen without family responsibilities, who move to successive jobs in different localities. Other types of installations are described briefly in the paragraphs below on Outlook.

Remodeling work provides a considerable part of total employment, as does also the installation of additional business or factory equipment in existing buildings. Commercial remodeling usually means substantial changes in the electrical system, especially in store modernization. Residential remodeling and modernization also affect the electric wiring. The installation or shifting of electrical equipment in stores, restaurants, factories, etc., means extension of existing circuits or installation of new circuits to provide the necessary current and avoid overloading the old circuits. Even the smallest portable items, such as drink mixers at soda fountains, require nearby outlets and, if these are not already in place, they must be provided.

Not included among the construction electricians are stage and motion-picture electricians, electrical equipment repairmen, linemen, men working on telephone equipment, and many others working with electrical materials.

Where Employed

Construction electricians are principally employed along with the other building trades in the construction of residences, apartment buildings, stores, office buildings, and industrial plants, and in remodeling work. Some, however, work for electric utility systems, city or Federal Government departments, or

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work in coal and other metal mines, manufacturing plants, and large buildings, where they install, change, and maintain wiring systems and electrical equipment. There are also various types of specialists, such as those who restrict their work to the construction and installation of electric signs.

Employment is naturally greatest in densely populated areas, partly because of the large amount of commercial and industrial wiring. However, small cities, towns, villages, and rural areas are offering more new opportunities than previously; at the end of June 1948 almost 70 percent of all farms had centralstation electric service.

Training and Qualifications

A 4-year apprenticeship or, in some cases, several years as electrician's helper, is necessary to learn the trade. Picking up the trade informally through employment as a helper was fairly common at one time but is much less prevalent nowadays. The union does not recognize helpers; they are, however, still employed in some cases on nonunion jobs. In many localities an electrician is required to have a journeyman's license, for which he must pass an examination showing a wellrounded knowledge of the job and of State and local regulations. In most cities of any size and in many of the States, a man wishing to engage in electrical contracting must have a contractor's license. Men who held ratings as electricians in the armed forces usually will not qualify as journeymen without further training, but their past experience may afford an opportunity to enter the trade as advanced apprentices.

Outlook

The outlook for additional workers is good, and at the present time there are about 19,000 apprentices, according to the Bureau of Apprenticeship records; probably a considerable number of these will be employed in industries other than construction.

This is the newest of the large recognized trades, dealing with a new group of materials and a new type of work; the present stage has been reached in about two generations. Development over these two generations has been

rapid and almost continuous, standards have changed, and changes are occurring at the present time. Several of these reduce the time needed for specific operations, but separately and in combination they have helped to raise the general standards of electric wiring, have encouraged modernization of obsolete or overloaded wiring in old buildings, and have tended to increase the total volume of electricians' employment.

Flexibility and provision for unforeseeable future needs are of primary importance in nonresidential buildings of almost all types, and the standards of recent years make provision for this. For factories, this flexibility is obtained by use of "bus duct" for power wiring. Bus duct consists of lengths of metal conductors supported by insulators inside a long sheet metal box, with provision at frequent intervals for easy, convenient connection of branch circuits, which can be added or changed at any time without change of the basic installation. In better grade office buildings, "raceways" are installed instead of conduit for wiring; these are fairly large sheet metal passages with closely spaced provision for outlets, installed usually just beneath the floor surface but sometimes in the ceiling or the walls. These provide almost unlimited flexibility for whatever demands may arise during the life of the building. Modernization of old wiring has been greatly aided by new insulating materials which need not be so thick as those formerly used. They reduce the overall diameter of insulated wire, and thus make it possible to replace overloaded circuits in old buildings with heavier circuits, merely by replacing the wires in the old conduits. This has given great impetus to improvement of inadequate wiring systems.

The uses of electric current continue to increase. One illustration is the continuous increase in the use of electric ranges and water heaters. These are installed in old as well as new buildings and, in each case, require a special circuit. Permanently installed electric heating panels for individual rooms were put on the market recently. While these seem unlikely to become common in the near future, they are significant in illustrating the increase in the range of current-using products available. Electrically charged dust collectors are

another fairly recent product adapting electric current to a new purpose. The employment outlook is good for any trade in which real improvement in the products (as distinct from mere novelty or style change) proceeds rapidly, and electric work is one of the trades in which this condition is met most fully.

Since most of the work is indoors, it is relatively free from interruption by bad weather, although, of course, the volume of new work in progress varies seasonally. Alteration and modernization work are less seasonal, and help to smooth out annual employment.

erhood of Electrical Workers of America, 1200 15th St., NW., Washington 5, D. C., or from the National Electrical Contractors Association, Ring Building, 1200 18th St., NW., Washington 6, D. C.

Sheet Metal Workers

Outlook Summary

The outlook for sheet metal workers is good; this has been an expanding trade, and its principal type of work is more prominent in building operations now than at any time in the past.

Nature of Work

Sheet metal workers fabricate and install a rather wide variety of building products made from thin metal sheets. The largest field is that of ventilating, with or without heating or air conditioning, but there are many additional kinds of work. This is a highly skilled trade, and should not be confused with semiskilled factory occupations in the routine production of articles from sheets or strips of metal by stamping, die-forming or other repetitive methods.

A ventilating system consists basically of a system of ducts for the supply of air and the removal of stale air throughout all or certain parts of a building, combined with a blower and other apparatus.12 It is usually but not always combined with a heating system, and frequently with the other apparatus (for cooling, filtering, humidifying and dehumidifying) needed for an air-conditioning system. Sheet metal workers make and install the ducts, the blower, and the other apparatus except that used for heating and cooling. They perform similar work on more restricted airmoving systems, such as for removal of fumes in factories or for collection of shavings or dust at woodworking machines and elsewhere.

Hot-air heating systems (furnaces) are installed by sheet metal workers. While these are popular for detached houses, most installations are quite simple and the total volume of employment afforded is much less than that in

12 A quite different type of ventilating system uses an individual air inlet-blower-radiator combination for each room. These are much less common than duct-type systems; their principal use is in school buildings.

of assembling the furnace in place from factory-made parts, installing a blower and air filter if these are to be used, and installing ducts to the hot-air registers in the various rooms and to the return registers. This duct work is far simpler than that for a ventilating system, and a comparatively small range of sizes and shapes is sufficient in most cases. Hence, these are commonly bought ready-made by the contractor, although in other cases they are made in his shop. A recent development is panel-type hot-air heating in which the hot air ducts pass across and heat the ceiling, and the heated air does not enter the rooms. From an employment standpoint this new type of furnace heat is favorable, but of only moderate importance, because hot-air heating systems are a fairly small part of the trade's total work.

Sheet metal workers install metal roofing where this is used, and also metal siding. These usually come as large sheets, corrugated or else grooved for stiffening, and require no further processing beyond such cutting as is needed to fit the building. Sheet metal workers install roof gutters and (unless when soil pipe is used for the purpose) downspouts for drainage of rain water, in conjunction with all types of roofing. They make and install flashings (formed metal strips) at roof valleys, at chimneys, and elsewhere, to prevent seepage of rain or melted snow. They make and install skylights. Altogether, these roof and exterior materials are fairly important as a source of employment. Since they are exposed to the weather, they are subject to deterioration and require repair or replacement from time to time. On expensive buildings, the gutters and downspouts are usually made in the contractor's shop, but for ordinary buildings factorymade parts are frequently used. Stock design skylights, made in advance as a standard item, have become important for industrial and warehouse buildings. For the most part they are made by sheet metal workers rather than factory operatives.

Factory-made doors, window sash, frames, partitions, etc., are commonly used in nonresidential buildings. Sheet metal workers frequently install these. They also install some types of concrete forms made of sheet metal,

column heads, but these are a small part of the total work on concrete forms. Other minor fields are commercial signs and the like for theaters, stores, etc.

Some contractors make ducts and duct fittings at the building where they are to be installed, sending out the machines needed for the purpose. Others make them at a permanent shop from the drawings and measurements taken at the building. In either case, however, shop work is a basic part of the trade. Use of standard factory-made ducts and fittings for a ventilating installation, comparable to standard parts frequently used for furnace installations, has been entirely impractical to date, and it is difficult to see how this condition can change. The reason is the almost unlimited variation in conditions to be met-dimensions of the building, rate of air movement wanted, space allowed for the ducts, etc. This variation means that each installation of any size must be a specially designed and custom-made job, if it is to fit the building and perform efficiently.

Where Employed

Most sheet metal workers are employed in making and installing equipment for new buildings or for new installations in existing buildings. A very small number specialize in repair work. Apart from this work on buildings, sheet metal workers employed in small shops manufacture, often to special order, a variety of kitchen equipment, such as steam tables, dish racks, canopies, sinks, steel or copper kettles, and similar products, for hotels and restaurants. Another specialization is the coppersmith work in constructing vats and stills for breweries and distilleries and handmade fittings for marine work. But the number so employed is quite small.

Sheet metal workers are also employed in a fairly wide range of manufacturing industries, though there are only a comparatively small number in each. Probably the largest number are employed in the machinery industries, particularly those making blowers, exhausts, electrical generating and distributing equipment, food products machinery, and steam engines and turbines. Here they make and

order basis-enclosures and parts for special machinery, industrial ovens, and a great many other items. This work requires the same skills, tools, and equipment as does sheet metal work for buildings, and is totally different from repetitive operations found in many factories, where one worker stamps out thousands of identical parts. During the war, the aircraft and shipbuilding industries employed large numbers of men in work with sheet metal. Many of them were trained only for quite specific operations, however, and in skill were not comparable to journeymen.

Training and Qualifications

An apprenticeship of 4 or sometimes 5 years is required, including a minimum of 144 hours per year of classroom instruction in pattern drafting, elementary mathematics, blueprint reading, estimating, basic principles of heating and ventilating, and related subjects. Workers with several years of experience as helpers sometimes become journeymen, or their equivalent, without serving a formal apprenticeship.

While it is necessary to acquire skill in the use of tools and to become adept at working from difficult positions, these qualities alone are not enough to make a person a thoroughly capable workman. This is a trade where rounded knowledge of the work being done and good elementary knowledge of the principles being followed are necessary, particularly for ventilating work. Some knowledge of the characteristics of air flow is necessary for a competent journeyman. While journeyman knowledge is much less technical than engineering knowledge, it requires thorough training and cannot be acquired casually. Even for furnace work, corresponding knowledge is needed. For example, a journeyman should be able to estimate the heat loss from each room of a house and measure the stack temperature (temperature of the combustion gases near the bottom of the chimney) and know what it means regarding heating efficiency of the installation.

Outlook

Prospects for sheet metal workers in construction are decidedly good. In addition, a

ers will be needed in the other industries mentioned above. For a number of years, both before and during the war, there were not enough apprentices in training. As a result, the present supply of skilled workers is considerably below the expected demands, and many new workers must be trained, if these demands are to be met.

The use of air conditioning in major buildings has been increasing, and further increase is very likely. It is used for improving the quality of product in manufacturing operations. While an installation is expensive and operating cost is substantial, there are many situations in which it brings an over-all saving rather than additional expense. For numerous kinds of factory operations, it improves the quality of the product and cuts down the percentage of rejects and seconds; for office work and some kinds of factory activities, it increases the efficiency of workers in hot weather. These advantages are being more widely recognized. Its effectiveness in attracting and retaining customers in hot weather for retail establishments, restaurants, and amusement places is of course already well known. True air conditioning is not on the horizon as a common feature in ordinary houses, however, because of the initial cost; "winter air conditioning," "air conditioning heat," and similar expressions used for domestic heating systems mean merely a hot-air furnace with a blower and frequently with some sort of air filter and rudimentary humidifying apparatus.

Ventilating installations without air conditioning may increase also, though already widely used. Other parts of the field are unlikely to change enough for an important effect on total employment.

Wage Rates

Wage rates established by collective bargaining agreements for a number of cities and their surrounding areas are given in the table below as of July 1, 1948.