Quote:
Originally Posted by Lucien Nunes
AFAIK instant electric 'geysers' were around from the 1930s (Santon comes to mind) but would always have had a loading in excess of 20A.
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I have a rather wonderful 'Brown Brother's' catalogue from 1938. By the look of it, they were a chain of national electrical wholesalers. There's everything in there- plugs & sockets, industrial switchgear & wiring accessories, lighting, lead covered twin & earth cable plus a section on domestic appliances. All with great pictures!
'Santon' can supply thermal store water heaters from 1.5 gal (750W) up to 20 gal (2KW). If you need to use them on DC mains, add 11 Shillings & 3 pence!
'Heatrae' (no Sadia then) do a similar range up to 30 gal which is 3KW, priced at £27,0,0.
Santon do their own control switch which looks very similar to the OP's one except it's surface mount with it's own box. Similar style with rotary switch
& neon lamp.
Santon also list an instantaneous water heater which works on the same principal as a modern electric shower. The 'Electric Geyser' is rated at 5KW and priced at £103/6!!
I was getting carried away there! Once I start looking through, I find all sorts of interesting things- maybe I should give it it's own thread?
The Wylex range of consumer units with the colour coded rewireable fuses (BS3036 'semi enclosed fuse') must be the most widely used fuse box of all time! There must still be millions in service and they rarely give any trouble.
The colour code was 5A white, 15A blue, 20A Yellow, 30A red. I've also got a green one with a 40A cartridge fuse. The pin spacing was different on each so you couldn't put the wrong size in the wrong hole. Of course that didn't stop people from fitting 30A fuse wire to a 5A one!
Many thanks to 'Hillwalker' for sharing the pictures!
All the best
Nick