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Old 16th Jan 2009, 1:32 pm   #14
russell_w_b
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Penrith, Cumbria, UK.
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Default Re: Old electrical fittings

Quote:
Originally Posted by brianc View Post
The plugs with screw-in live pins you referred to were made by Dorman-Smith. The company still make switchgear.
Dorman Smith had a factory at Workington. My auntie made plugs there! The DS plugs I remember (13A BS1363 flat-pin) had a 'fold-out' fuse-carrier, accessed by snapping the live-leg down and hinging the carrier outwards.

They also had (and this might tie in with Graham's observation about the earth-pin) a small rectangular gap in the top, right above the earth terminal. This was used as a locating point for the protrusion on the plug cover, but was of sufficient depth as to allow access to the earth pin with the plug cover firmly in place. Might this have been to run a separate earth-wire to a radio, say, without leading it in with the appliance cable?

Quote:
Originally Posted by brianc View Post
These plugs were used in the BBC up until at least the 1980s for technical power to prevent non-technical kit (vacuum cleaners etc.) being plugged into the circuits used for powering the program equipment as this could cause earth-neutral problems.
Brian
We use Walsall-gauge stuff with the orientation of the pins reversed on the bays at Skelton transmitting station, but they were originally intended to provide a 'maintained' supply around the site. They are non-fused.
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