I would like to share something with you about serendipity - an inspection short story. Am I a Prince of Serendip?
SERENDIPITY - noun - the phenomenon of finding valuable things not looked for. First known use in English in 1754, coming from an ancient Persian fairy tale called "The Three Princes of Serendip."
Once upon a time there lived an engineer who worked for a printing company. During printing the pages would often stick together in the humid factory and five-color printing came out blurry. Willis Carrier, the engineer in our story, went about trying to solve that problem.
In 1906 he invented a mechanism to remove humidity from the air. He filed a patent in 1907, finally accepted by the Patent Office in 1914. He called his mechanism an "apparatus for treating air."
He also found that his mechanism also produced lots of cooled, or conditioned, air. Carrier thought that many mechanisms might cool the whole factory. They did! His humidity problem was solved, and everyone was cool at work. Carrier called his method "air treatment." In 1911 he published his formulas in a handbook. His air conditioning formulas are still used today by The American Society Of Mechanical Engineers!
Willis Carrier, with serendipity, discovered air conditioning.
He was 100 years before his time!
And America lived happily ever after.
The end.
Home inspectors like serendipity. It has found me many times.
May I share a lovely home inspector short story?
Once upon a time, while in an attic space, a Prince of Serendip discovered this connection.
He didn't like it (the wire is damaged, and the plug is not a grounded plug) and, his antenna going way high, he became interested in what it serviced.
So the Prince of Serendip investigated further. He is good at that.
Then he noticed the bulb did not light up unless it was turned in the socket. That means the switch is always on.
Uh, oh.
Why would the switch always be on, you ask?
Why would the switch always be on, HE asked!
So he pulled the chain and turned off the switch. The bulb turned off.
When he did that his client said a light also went out down below. "Which one," the Prince asked? And he pulled the chain to turn it back on. She said, "The master bedroom ceiling fan and light just went back on." So he turned it off. "And now they are both off again."
SERENDIPITY!
Then the Prince traced the wire through the insulation and it went right to the master bedroom ceiling!
The Prince had never seen that sort of ceiling fan installation before!
And his client lived happily ever after.
The end.
My recommendation: believe me when I say it is good to have serendipity find you! I love it! It seems to find me a lot. Maybe I am one of the Princes of Serendip! Where can I get the stylish and colorful turban? I'm thinking burgundy and gold.
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