Changing the Guiding Light

摘要

When you want to change a burned-out light bulb in Manhattan, usually all you need to do is put in a call to your super. (Okay, make that a few calls.) But what about the aviation beacon on top of the Empire State Building, a flashing red light that wards off low-flying aircraft? When that burns out, you need to phone someone three states away. Building engineers consider Tom Silliman, who runs Electronics Research, Inc., based in tiny Chandler, Indiana, one of the best "antenna men" in the business. "I've been up there probably a hundred times," the laconic 56-year-old Silliman says. When the call comes, Silliman has just two days to get the job done—weather or not. It's been this way since the early 1970s, when he made his first ascent.