At risk of being thought facetious, UK suppliers of hookup wire include Hotpoint, Hoover etc..... Old washing machines often have a gratifyingly generous amount of mains-rated PVC wiring of ample gauge for HT and most heater applications in a spread of colours. If stranded PVC-insulated wire was deemed good enough for post-war Ministry overhaul of AR88s, use in R1155s doesn't seem too outrageous. The usual suspects (Farnell, RS etc.) do 16/0.2 stranded PVC insulated wire (my go-to vintage overhaul choice, good for most applications away from the more arduous temperature/current situations) rated at 1kV DC- this also often turns up at rallies in bargain slightly used reels, often in "prototyping pink"!
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Originally Posted by lesmw0sec
I have a rather nice magnetic detector from a WW2 influence mine. Apart from the thing being excellently made like a Swiss watch, what is also impressive is the high quality wire used, being coated with some tough semi-transparent plastic (not PVC) which is in as good a condition as when made. I'd be interested to know what it is.
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I'd be interested to know, too- I suspect it may be early HDPE (higher melting point), I believe that polythene was originally "discovered" by industrial chemists in the mid-thirties by the fortuitous polymerisation of ethane and its insulation properties were quickly appreciated. There's also a similar era vintage wire with relatively hard white plastic insulation that might also be a variation on the HDPE theme- I'm fairly certain that it's not PVC or PTFE. I gather that PTFE was another mid-thirties product but, although having excellent insulating and low-loss dielectric properties, was rather more challenging and expensive to apply practically and was probably largely a post-war thing.