Formation of the National Electrical Code

A must read book in pictures for the electrician to understand the formation of the NEC, the intent of the rules,sovereign immunity, liability, the inspector, the license exam, the real world today, and the permit. Tom Henry will sum up these 12 educational chapters in his over 60 years experiencing the intent of the National Electrical Code book.
You will find this to be a very educational and truthful and very interesting journey from the beginning to the real world today.
The light bulb was a turning point for humanity as much as the printing press. Technologically speaking, mankind has advanced more in the last hundred years than the thousand before that. Without the invention of the light bulb, there would be no modern computer as we know it
today.

    With Edison's and Hubbell's electric products and the Pearl Street power plant let the wiring begin! William Merrill was hired by a group of insurance companies to evaluate concerns about the fire risk of the electrical wiring of 100,000 Edison incandescent light bulbs in the Palace of Electricity at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago.
    With five different organizations acting independently, electrical installers were following five separate codes. This made uniform systems and connections next to impossible.
    On November 6, 1896, representatives from each organization met in New York to discuss fire, electrical, sprinklers and uniformity. The meeting was presided over by fire insurance agent Uberto Crosby. Articles were drawn up for a new regulatory association. Article 1 read "This organization shall be known as the National Fire Protection Agency." To this day, the NFPA has led fire safety efforts in the United States.
    This draft was then sent to over 1,000 scientists, mathematicians, physicists, inventors, chemists, engineers, entrepreneurs, industrialists, futurists, tradesmen, manufacturer representatives, fire fighters, and other invitees from all over the world, who provided comments and suggested additions and changes. The committee met again in June and incorporated the best of the reviewer comments. The final result was theNational Electrical Code of 1897.

So many in the electrical industry are not aware of Chapter Eight - Sovereign Immunity. The rationale was that the government could do no wrong, but that allowing a lawsuit for breach of a government duty would expose the government to unlimited liability,the costs of which would have to be borne by taxpayers.
The electrician is responsible for the correct installation of electrical wiring, not the inspector. The following is why education is so important in the electrical industry.

ITEM #1026 The Formation of the NEC.......... $29