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Old 4th Jun 2015, 8:06 pm   #1
Techman
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Default The oldest wall-wart?

Prompted by this recent thread on old battery chargers:-

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=117021

It reminded me of the charger that I remember my late father using to charge the battery on his 1958 Vauxhall Victor, plus several other following cars. I still have the charger which no longer works. I seem to remember that when I 'found' it again a couple of years ago and did some tests, the transformer was o/c.

One of the adverts below dates from 1966, I think. Also, a couple of pictures of the actual charger.

Could this be the oldest ever 'wall-wart', or does anyone else know different?
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Old 4th Jun 2015, 8:26 pm   #2
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Default Re: The oldest wall-wart?

Very interesting.

I can remember reading something in a copy of Which? of about the same date which mentioned a wall-wart device supplied with an imported slide viewer. The point was stressed that if it didn't fit the sockets in your house, you must not chop it off and fit a normal plug.
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Old 4th Jun 2015, 8:40 pm   #3
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Default Re: The oldest wall-wart?

Ah, it would be interesting to find a reference to that, Nick.

Oh dear! I knew I'd seen an indicator lamp lens like the one on my charger:-

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=116148

"Also interested in the red variety"

No, he can't have it!

Makes you think, though
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Old 4th Jun 2015, 9:47 pm   #4
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Default Re: The oldest wall-wart?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nickthedentist View Post
I can remember reading something in a copy of Which? of about the same date which mentioned a wall-wart device supplied with an imported slide viewer. The point was stressed that if it didn't fit the sockets in your house, you must not chop it off and fit a normal plug.
In the mid/late 60's my eldest sister owned a slide viewer which had a "mains adapter option".

As we lived in a small mining village and she was doing her nursing training in Middlesbrough, which was some twenty miles away, she lodged in a house close to the general hospital due to the fact that she didn't drive at the time.

When she returned home (presumably whilst on leave) the mains adapter that she had purchased for her slide viewer wouldn't fit our "modern" 13 amp sockets as she had purchased the adapter which fitted the 15 amp 3 pin ones in her lodgings.......The adapter was grey in colour and was certainly of "wall wart" design


Andrew
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Old 4th Jun 2015, 10:16 pm   #5
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Default Re: The oldest wall-wart?

Circa 1964 I read an item in a science magazine that I borrowed from my school library (and never returned) that referred to the advantages of plug top power supplies to make working environments safer by eliminating flexes carrying mains voltages.

We are presently having a clearout of the loft as we are having our house re-roofed, so there is a good chance I might actually be able to find it in the next few days.
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Old 5th Jun 2015, 11:10 am   #6
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Default Re: The oldest wall-wart?

Your charger is certainly an old one and quite unusual as few houses had 13amp sockets back in 1966. It must have been quite a strain on the socket.

Not exactly a wall wart, more a lampholder wart but this RUNBAKEN [Manchester] DC mains charger employs the lamp as a ballast. The higher the wattage lamp, the higher the charge.
This with it's battery leads must have been quite a strain on the lampholder and ceiling rose. It weighs a ton! Regards, John.
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Old 5th Jun 2015, 4:36 pm   #7
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Default Re: The oldest wall-wart?

I have two of these wall-warts that are attached to HP 1111A current probe amplifiers, only have one probe though.
My oldest one is from 1966, but the 1111A first appeared in the 1963 HP catalogue.

David
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Old 18th Jun 2015, 8:40 pm   #8
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Default Re: The oldest wall-wart?

Just dug out the magazine I mentioned. The article was a short news item, "A New Transformer Plug", published in "Discovery", May 1958, page 219, and describes a compact plug-top transformer with a 25V output (presumably AC) for powering low voltage inspection lamps, soldering irons and the like. Intended for industrial use. The article refers to a recent Inspector of Factories report which advocated the use of low voltage supplies to improve safety in the workplace, having regard to the almost 800 electrical accidents at work (40 fatal) that had been reported in 1956. PDF copy attached: no illustration unfortunately.
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Old 19th Jun 2015, 6:29 pm   #9
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Default Re: The oldest wall-wart?

That sounds like the one we had for the under-vehicle inspection lamp in the '60s. A large 15A plug on a normal-looking wire-caged handlamp, but with a 3-pin BC holder for 25volt bulbs.
It soon got run-over, after which the pins were loose, and you had to jam it in with a pencil.
More trouble than it was worth. Ex-ICI, I imagine, like most things in Billingham at that time.
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Old 3rd Aug 2015, 12:34 am   #10
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Default Re: The oldest wall-wart?

Quote:
Originally Posted by emeritus View Post
Just dug out the magazine I mentioned. The article was a short news item, "A New Transformer Plug", published in "Discovery", May 1958, page 219, and describes a compact plug-top transformer with a 25V output
A plug-top is the lid or cover of the plug. The article correctly describes it as a plug.
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Old 3rd Aug 2015, 10:51 am   #11
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Default Re: The oldest wall-wart?

Bizarrely, "plug" seems to be common slang for socket, and "plug-top" for plug though. I've never really understood this.
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Old 3rd Aug 2015, 10:58 am   #12
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Default Re: The oldest wall-wart?

IIRC the plug is the receptacle in the wall, the plug-top is the part that is fitted to the cable and connects to the plug. The plug-top is usually made in two parts to enable the wiring to be attached.

But I trained on the 15th Edition wiring regulations, so my memory may be inaccurate
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Old 3rd Aug 2015, 12:44 pm   #13
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Default Re: The oldest wall-wart?

Interesting, Richard!

I suppose "plug top" for the moulded plastic bit of the whole thing makes sense.
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Old 6th Aug 2015, 4:38 pm   #14
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Default Re: The oldest wall-wart?

'Plug Top' is an ancient name for what we now call a 'plug'. It goes back to the early days, when it was turned from solid wood, and resembled a spinning-top. A glance at a Great-War era Lundberg catalogue will clarify.
The archaism survives in the electrical wholesale trade as an example of trade 'jargon', in a similar way to 'platelayer' in railway terminology, or 'gasman' in stage lighting.
The thing it 'plugged' was a socket, holder or receptacle. 'Receptacle' persists in the US, but is now almost unknown here. 'Plug', to refer to a socket, is just sloppy English, and akin to 'transistor', to refer to an entire broadcast receiving set.
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Old 6th Aug 2015, 4:52 pm   #15
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Default Re: The oldest wall-wart?

i find "plug-top" to be horribly grating.

The thing-on-the-wall is a [female] socket.

The thing you fit into it is a [male] plug.

I always differentiated connectors as "male" and "female" - the male being the part having pins and the female as having orifices to receive the males' protruding pins.

If there's anything ever needing to be called a "plug-top" it is the visible screw-attached cover-part that fits on to the top of the body of a plug to protect the terminals/fuse/cord-grip.
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Old 12th Aug 2015, 2:11 pm   #16
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Default Re: The oldest wall-wart?

Plug top doesn't make much sense and I won't ever use the word, but it can be remembered the same way you remember male/female. Top is usually the active party. Plugging a plug top into a plug is the action.

In Dutch, a plug is called a 'steker' (pronounce as you would 'stayker' in English), related to the verb 'steken' which means to put, to insert, to stick or to stab. It is nowadays often spelled and almost always pronounced 'stekker' (pronounce as you would 'stacker' in English) which is not related to any other word but is more like the German pronounciation of their word 'Stecker' with the same meaning and the same ethymological origin as the Dutch 'steker'.

Back to the topic of the oldest wall-wart: I seem to recall that early Philishaves came with a resistive wall-wart for 220-240V operation. The shaver motor itself was probably designed for operation on 127V or less. I will see if I can find anything about that.
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Old 13th Aug 2015, 1:20 pm   #17
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Default Re: The oldest wall-wart?

The 1911 GEC catalogue used "Wall plugs" as a descriptive term to refer to the combination of plug and the socket, but uses "plug" and "socket" when referring to the individual items. My late parents always used to say "plug top" when referring to plugs.

The Hubbell catalogue of 1906 uses both "receptacle" and "socket", and seems to reserve "plug" for combined plug and socket adapters that allowed the contemporary design of Hubbell 2 pin "plug" to be used with existing "sockets" and "receptacles". What we would now call a "plug" was then called a "cap".

Getting back on topic, I am sure I recall some continental photographic equipment being fitted with plug-in mains adapters in the mid to late 1960's. When I dig my collection of old "Amateur Photographer"s from the back of the shed, I might be able to find some pictures.
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Last edited by emeritus; 13th Aug 2015 at 1:27 pm.
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