Why is it we don’t have a whirligig of life installed? So now you’re go to say you have no idea what a whirligig of life is aren’t you? Perhaps now then would be a good time to expand on it a bit….
At work, we have a device called a Welwyn, it’s really a simple idea that stops silly mistakes from turning into nasty ones 😉 Okay as some of you may or may not know I work on the railway signalling trains, in simplistic terms (because the rules behind much of it would have most people reaching for the mouse to get back to Youtube), in order for a signaller to clear their signals where I work the next box along has to give them a line clear. You can only use the line clear once – so you can’t stand their repeatedly moving the signal lever back and forwards. So this means that if something goes wrong whilst clearing the signals you have to request another line clear. This is the relevant bit…. In order to give another line clear you have to use the Welwyn which is a small device with a crank handle sticking out the front of it, on the casing there is a tiny window where normally you can see the letter N. So when the request for another line clear comes you have to stand and wind the crank handle and watch whilst the N vanishes and a little line appears, then you wind and wind and wind until the N pops back up in the tiny window. Quite simply whilst winding the window it gives you time to think about what you are doing, it’s not something that can be rushed, and it’s not something that you want to rush as it is a device designed to save lives.
Although it’s called a Welwyn I’ll always think of it as a whirligig after one of my first shifts on my own and having a small issue with a piece of equipment when I one of the guys who had been on considerably longer than me (by around 40 years) he said quite simply “hast tha wound ya whirligig yit?” I hadn’t 🙁
I was looking at a whirligig the other day, (12 hours in a signal box on your own you get to know your surroundings fairly well) and I got to thinking. I wish I had one of those whirligigs installed. How much confusion would it have avoided all these years, how many arguments would have been missed (I’ve not had many), how many fights would I have walked away from rather than participating in (I’ve had even less fights than arguments). But more than that, how much money would I have saved rather than making those impulse purchases. Would I have ruined that piece of timber if I’d wound the whirligig of life rather than going straight in with the chisel.
I’m not saying that before doing anything there is a pause whilst the N vanishes from the tiny window only to reappear two minutes later. Well driving would be interesting if we did, should I brake for that fallen tree, let’s wind out and think for a couple of minutes…. splat….
Looking back some people may well have had an invisible whirligig installed without them knowing it. Tolkien perhaps on revision 24 of page 1 of Lord of the Rings was not thinking to himself should I go back to this party idea; he was waiting for the N to reappear in his tiny window.
On the other hand some people obviously needed to be winding the whirligig a little bit longer, Joe Dolce may never have sang “What’s a matter you?” Which for many may have been a great relief.
So the next time I have something important to decide, or feel a brief flush of anger I’ll reach for my newly installed whirligig 😉
the real whirligig…….
