International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

A day of wiring a rental sparks three threads: skills that return, a guild older than its technology, and spaces you can't touch.

Three jobs that look like pure nerve — steeplejacks, helicopter linemen, tower climbers — and what they're actually doing up there.

Helicopter barehand work on a 765kV line is the top few percent of the trade — here's who gets there, and what it costs.

A papyrus contract from 18 BC, a five-euro coin, and the German Walz — how one medieval ladder survived only in the licensed trades.