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Serendipity - An Inspection Short Story. Am I A Prince Of Serendip?

By
Home Inspector with Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC 3380-000723

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.

 

 

Posted by

Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC  

Based in Bristow, serving all of Northern Virginia.

Office (703) 330-6388   Cell (703) 585-7560

www.jaymarinspect.com


Comments(16)

Lise Howe
Keller Williams Capital Properties - Washington, DC
Assoc. Broker in DC, MD, VA and attorney in DC

I always learn a lot from your posts - thanks for the information about William Carrier - I thought I was reading a James Dray post for a  moment! 

Sep 04, 2015 08:39 PM
Jay Markanich
Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC - Bristow, VA
Home Inspector - servicing all Northern Virginia

Thanks Lise.  I like including history in my posts from time to time.

Sep 04, 2015 08:47 PM
Sally K. & David L. Hanson
EXP Realty 414-525-0563 - Brookfield, WI
WI Real Estate Agents - Luxury - Divorce

Be careful what you wish for Prince...or Santa may find you new headgear !

Sep 04, 2015 08:47 PM
Jay Markanich
Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC - Bristow, VA
Home Inspector - servicing all Northern Virginia

Maybe Billy Jays  should get on this one, S&D!

Sep 04, 2015 08:49 PM
TeamCHI - Complete Home Inspections, Inc.
Complete Home Inspections, Inc. - Brentwood, TN
Home Inspectons - Nashville, TN area - 615.661.029

Good Saturday morning Jay. I have seen many aparatuses that I wish I had not seen. Some folks think that they are inventors like Edison.

Sep 04, 2015 08:57 PM
Jay Markanich
Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC - Bristow, VA
Home Inspector - servicing all Northern Virginia

For sure, Michael.  And Edison was most famous for improving other inventions and repatenting them.  This was no improvement!

Sep 04, 2015 09:17 PM
Mike Cooper, Broker VA,WV
Cornerstone Business Group Inc - Winchester, VA
Your Neighborhood Real Estate Sales Pro

That was a very serendipitous finding, Prince Jay. We have a saying with the electrical business. "Everyone has a friend." Of course that means everyone has someone who dabbles in a little of this and a little of that. Sadly, that crosses over into the electrical line sometimes. Your client had a very creative solution to a fan install, but whew! Not the safest. Thanks for the heads up. Another great illustration for my long list of "don't do this" electrical stories.

Sep 04, 2015 09:42 PM
Wayne Martin
Wayne M Martin - Chicago, IL
Real Estate Broker - Retired

Jay, you seem to find the oddest situations and that is what they pay you for! Enjoy your day!

Sep 04, 2015 09:49 PM
Raymond E. Camp
Ontario, NY

Good morning Jay,

Lucky you did not get a little jolt pulling on the switch; someone else is luck there was never a fire!

I will ponder this sitting in the Carrier Dome in a few weeks.

Make yourself a great day.

Sep 04, 2015 10:13 PM
Patricia Kennedy
RLAH@properties - Washington, DC
Home in the Capital

Jay, I once listed the very first house in DC to have had central air conditioning.  Turned out the duct work was covered with a suit of asbestos, meaning the guys with moon suits had to come and remove it. 

Sep 04, 2015 11:53 PM
Sheila Anderson
Referral Group Incorporated - East Brunswick, NJ
The Real Estate Whisperer Who Listens 732-715-1133

Good morning Jay. You are the prince and I would love to see you in the outfit.

Sep 05, 2015 12:23 AM
Jay Markanich
Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC - Bristow, VA
Home Inspector - servicing all Northern Virginia

This surely ranks on the "don't do this" list, Mike!  And the friend comment is priceless!

Wayne - and it's fun every day!

I probably should have licked it before I tested it, Raymond.  To be sure it wasn't hot.  And I bet the Carrier Dome is a rocking place!

That's the best insulator ever Pat!  And too bad they wore suits and couldn't tell how delicious asbestos is.

I'm going to contact Billy Jays   to see if he thinks the turban is marketable, Sheila.

Sep 05, 2015 04:14 AM
Kathy Streib
Cypress, TX
Home Stager/Redesign

Jay- two stories in 1 post!!  I love it.  Interesting about Carrier. And if this story doesn't convince people to make sure they get work done by an experienced, professional, licensed, and all of the other adjectives electrician/plumber/contractor, then I don't know what will. 

Sep 05, 2015 05:23 AM
Jay Markanich
Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC - Bristow, VA
Home Inspector - servicing all Northern Virginia

So, should I go with the turban, Kathy?

Sep 05, 2015 06:34 AM
Stephen Weakley
Nationwide Mortgage Services - Rockville, MD

Wow, couldn't open up that light and wired it into the circuit.  Lazy, lazy, lazy.

Sep 09, 2015 12:40 PM
Jay Markanich
Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC - Bristow, VA
Home Inspector - servicing all Northern Virginia

That was not done because this person is not an electrician, Stephen!

Sep 09, 2015 08:38 PM