Third shift workers day!

Today is Third Shift Workers Day! Rehashing…

The Weather Bureau salutes Third Shift Workers Day, for the folks who work graveyard shift. Hadn’t heard of this Day before.

From the linked items I couldn’t tell for sure which day is the Official Day. They range from May 7 to May 13. This is fitting, since graveyard shift blurs the boundaries of dates.

I’ve always been happiest and steadiest on graveyard shift. I worked graveyard at motels in the ’70s, then made my own graveyard shift at KU in the ’80s, and again when working from home in the last 20 years. On graveyard I’m a willing worker, ready to do what’s needed and more. On 8-5 I’m reluctant and unreliable, to put it mildly. Useless and absent to put it precisely.

This oil clock was developed in the 1600s as a timer and light for scribes and illuminators working through the night. It provided light for scribal work, and simultaneously measured the shift. When the light went out, time to go home or go to bed. (In other words, it was an illuminator illuminator.)

Self-calibrating in two ways: The light calibrated and enabled your work, and the flame calibrated the oil flow.

This is a patient machine in the same elegant way as the Willson automatic buoy. The fuel does all the work, with no other mechanism needed. As the flame uses up the oil, the level drops through the hours from sunset through sunrise.

= = = = =

Followed by a less elegant lamp-clock.