Blowing things up, and other reasons I love my job

8/22/2012 12:46 PM EDT

And what made you become an engineer to begin with?
to avoid unqualified / lazy journalists ( hacks ) who shoot their mouth to cover their ignorance of the subject matter

8/24/2012 10:01 PM EDT

Sylvie, I enjoyed your video as it brought back some memories of a visit I made to Littelfuse not long after embarking on my engineering career. I was selected to join some other engineers to visit Littelfuse at their Des Plaines facility. I had never been to Chicago, so that, itself, was an adventure. I remember them telling us about the generator they had at their facility that was used to create the power required for their fuse testing, and I remember them mentioning how long it took the generator to get up to speed. I remember the giant copper bus bars they had for carrying the current. Our product was place on a table and hooked up to the high voltage source, and run through various test. We watched the test from a viewing/control room, separated from the test room by a window several inches thick. I remember one explosion occurring and instinctively ducking! The folks at Littelfuse were great hosts, and I learned a lot about fuses--terms like "closing angle" and I**2t, and how fuse performs differently under DC and AC conditions, and how a little inductance in the circuit can affect the fusing action. There is a lot of science behind what is seemingly a simple component, and every day they are protecting us from harm.

I also caught the train into downtown Chicago, and did some touristy things like visiting the Sears Tower. That was nice too. All in all it was a great trip and a neat learning experience.