During this period, Gens Electric Company was in its prime and Arky Gens was a familiar name to most members. He was missing three fingers on his right hand from a frequent accident of this time, although most members were very cautious of black powder after Arky Gen’s accident.

Pipes poured in concrete leaked concrete through stub-ups and couplings, especially where bends forced the use of "Philadelphia" threads and other concoctions. A Philadelphia thread was made by allowing the dye to thread enough of the cut end to allow a locknut and coupling to thread all the way up on the cut end of the pipe. This pipe and a standard pipe thread would then be butted together and the coupling tightened onto the standard thread. The locknut was used to stop the coupling from loosening, but concrete still leaked into the raceway.

A practice was conceived of clearing the blockade by inserting an ounce, or two, or three of black powder capping the stub-up with a gas cap, which had a quarter inch hole predrilled into it for the wick, (much like a firecracker or cherry bomb). After the wick was lit and burned into the gas cap, oxygen and the black powder (nitrate) would explode, clearing the concrete cement through the opposite end of the raceway (DO NOT TRY THIS TODAY). Arky Gens lost the best part of the palm of his hand and three fingers while waiting several moments for the explosion then he removed the gas cap from the threaded stub, allowing enough oxygen into the raceway to blow the gas cap through the palm of his hand.

There was no working mens’ compensation in 1934 and Arky soon learned to be a left-handed electrician, and he and his family, along with members of Local 103, would become very successful contractors over the next sixty years. (Gens Electric merged with Norfolk Electric in the 1980s and had a piece of the electrical work on the depression of the expressway in the 1990s).