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Other Vintage Household Electrical or Electromechanical Items For discussions about other vintage (over 25 years old) electrical and electromechanical household items. See the sticky thread for details. |
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4th Dec 2014, 8:47 pm | #121 |
Dekatron
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Re: More old plugs!
Mum and Dads house have Bill 13A sockets, it was built in about the same year, 1954. They are the same colour as the plug and have the same logo. Behind the faceplate the workings are encased in a sort of vitreous earthenware like an old round light switch. They need a very deep back box.
We've just ripped out all our industrial bill fuseboards at work, installed new in the mid 1970's. Excellent quality and only changed due to lack of expansion. They've been replaced by something made in Germany.
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4th Dec 2014, 10:01 pm | #122 |
Retired Dormant Member
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Location: Liverpool, Merseyside, UK.
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Re: More old plugs!
McMurdo, do you have any photos of those Bill sockets? Would be interesting to see as I've never come across those
Just bought myself a nice 5 amp metal-clad MK on eBay to put in the loft on the lighting circuit to power my safe light / enlarger for the dark room I'm hoping to assemble in there. These just have such a quality feeling that you really can't get these days IMO. |
4th Dec 2014, 11:14 pm | #123 |
Octode
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK.
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Re: More old plugs!
John, note that your Hoover plug won't fit in to a 3 pin socket the L-N spacing was closer on the 2 pin versions of all the old British plugs than in the 3 pin versions, there were, however, some lovely adaptors which plugged into 3 pin outlets and had 2 off 2 pin sockets + a 3 pin... Clang's the name 'triangular adaptors' was their game...
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5th Dec 2014, 12:07 pm | #124 |
Dekatron
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Re: More old plugs!
Hi,
Here is my assortement of Clang triangular adaptors. Also shown are some MK 15amp adaptors with 5amp fused sockets on top and one with a 2amp fused socket. The third pic is an MK 15amp two pin plug with a 5amp socket on the back from the early 'thirties. The socket is double pole fused using fusewire. Fourth up is a chrome plated flush 5amp socket, possibly MK. When the switch is 'on' the earth pin is gripped and can't be withdrawn. The interlock works with any plug, not just MK ones. Finally, we have another MK 2amp two way adaptor. The interesting thing about this delight is that the sides are 'cut away' so that it will fit Crabtree 2amp 'fireside' sockets with inclined holes. Cheers, Pete.
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5th Dec 2014, 2:08 pm | #125 |
Dekatron
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Location: Brentwood, Essex, UK.
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Re: More old plugs!
Although I understand they were prohibited for new installations in the late 1940's, 2 pin 2A plugs and surface-mounting sockets, in white and brown, made by W&G, were still being sold by my local Woolworths in West Ham and Barking well into the early 1960's. As a schoolboy I bought some to use in a 12VDC power supply system. We only had a mains socket in one room upstairs, and it allowed me to run my battery tape recorder in other rooms, the 12V supply being my Hornby train set controller. Woolworths continued to sell W&G flex extenders to the 2 pin 2A gauge until the regulations for mains flexibles changed in the 1970's: their 2A extenders were only suitable for the shotgun configuration or twisted pair-type single insulated cables, and had no cord grip. I used to use them in my first car for connecting 12V accessories and still have some examples of all these types stashed away somewhere in the loft.
Last edited by emeritus; 5th Dec 2014 at 2:13 pm. |
5th Dec 2014, 2:22 pm | #126 |
Dekatron
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Location: Wiltshire, UK.
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Re: More old plugs!
I remember using those Woolworths WG 2A in-line plugs/sockets for hooking together long runs of loudspeaker-cable for the PA at outdoor events. I generally wired them with 2-core "D10" phone cable scrounged from the school CCF.
There was a similar plug and small circular surface-mounting socket but with polarised pins - I remember model-railway types using these for low voltage hookups, and they were sometimes also used on the dashboard of old non-heater-equipped cars to allow a "fixed to the windscreen by suckers" demister to be plugged in. |
5th Dec 2014, 3:05 pm | #127 |
Octode
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 1,517
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Re: More old plugs!
And as it's been mentioned here is a 'fireside unit', here we see it modelled by two contemporary plugs - the beautifully proportioned MK and a (what we used to call) 'lavvy seat' plug.
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5th Dec 2014, 3:15 pm | #128 |
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Location: Egham, Surrey, UK.
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Re: More old plugs!
When we moved to London after the War, the house was equipped with a variant of the 15amp plug of those days (1950) except these had a complex sculpture of the earth pin so that the socket's switch would not go "on" unless the plug was inserted and once "on" the plug was locked in place. I recall my father ordering extra plugs from MK. Has anyone else seen these ultra safe items??
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5th Dec 2014, 3:20 pm | #129 |
Octode
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Location: Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK.
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Re: More old plugs!
As in my post (#81) - he may well have been ordering new MK sockets when they'd been 'fouled' by the locking Crabtree plugs!
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5th Dec 2014, 3:26 pm | #130 |
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Re: More old plugs!
Forgive me if I am wrong, anything is allowed as long as it is safe. An example is terminal blocks at 240V inside a cabinet. One way of 'proving' it is to follow the IEE regulations.
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5th Dec 2014, 7:15 pm | #131 |
Dekatron
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Location: Brentwood, Essex, UK.
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Re: More old plugs!
My understanding came from my copy of Odhams "Radio Television and Electrical Repairs", third edition(1956), PDF attached, which refers to the use of 2 pin outlets being forbidden by the 12th edition of the wiring regulations.
While the text and drawing describe and illustrate how to install a 3 pin 2A socket, the caption to the drawing is evidently a carry-over from an earlier (1948 first, or 1952 second) edition, as it still refers to a 2 pin 2A socket. |
5th Dec 2014, 10:38 pm | #132 |
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Location: Liverpool, Merseyside, UK.
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Re: More old plugs!
Nicklyons2, I know, I'll just be using it with my safe light / enlarger. I've bought a couple of 5 amp round pin plugs to put on them
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6th Dec 2014, 10:11 am | #133 |
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Re: More old plugs!
I have a 1980s MK 5 amp socket in the kitchen mounted in the panel below the old boiler, the type with the thin faceplate and recessed switch lever. This has the fridge and freezer plugged in via a modern adaptor. The cable is 1.0mm² I think and originally fed only the boiler via a fused spur, so I didn't want to fit a 13A socket as a breaker trip could be a problem!
This way if the ring main gets tripped, as has happened several times the fridge and freezer won't be affected. It's on a 6A breaker. I'll post photos of this and some of my old plugs, sockets and adaptors soon. It's a shame I appear to have lost some of my nicer examples during a house move, including the MK fused adaptor with 5-amp socket in the top (the ivory version of the ones in Post 98 Image 2) and an assortment of other items. They might be here somewhere. Brian |
6th Dec 2014, 2:37 pm | #134 |
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Re: More old plugs!
yes, yes, more photos of everything MK related please
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6th Dec 2014, 3:07 pm | #135 | |
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Re: More old plugs!
Quote:
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6th Dec 2014, 3:23 pm | #136 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Mar 2008
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Re: More old plugs!
Hi,
Yes they do. I think every brass lamp holder, BC or ES, now has to have an earth terminal fitted. Cheers, Pete.
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6th Dec 2014, 9:16 pm | #137 |
Dekatron
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Location: Brentwood, Essex, UK.
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Re: More old plugs!
BC adaptors with an earth connection were certainly available from GEC pre-war: see the following thread, https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...t=71262&page=4 posts 71-81 for photos of my (incomplete and wrongly-manufactured) example, and an illustration of a complete one from one of Lucien's catalogues.
Last edited by emeritus; 6th Dec 2014 at 9:23 pm. |
28th Jun 2015, 8:58 pm | #138 |
Rest in Peace
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Re: 13A Plugs old and not so old
I have an early CLIX 13A plug show in the pictures below.
The first 2 pictures are general views of the plug and the first shows the huge bulge in the cover to accommodate the fuse holder. In the 3rd the terminals and the back of the fuse holder can be seen. The 4th picture shows the fuse and one of its contacts. The 5th picture shows some detail. "A" is the cord grip (the holder of which is detachable), "B" and "C" are the cover fixing screws (you knew that? ). When the fuse holder "D" is turned anti-clockwise through 90 deg. the fuse can be dropped out at "E". The plug is made from bakelite and due to the design must have cost a fortune to manufacture. Last edited by ukcol; 28th Jun 2015 at 9:00 pm. Reason: grammer |
28th Jun 2015, 9:04 pm | #139 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Oxford, UK.
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Re: 13A Plugs old and not so old
Never seen one of those, Colin. Thanks for sharing it with us.
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28th Jun 2015, 9:46 pm | #140 |
Heptode
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Hereford, UK.
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Re: 13A Plugs old and not so old
I have a couple of these, on one the giant grub screw cord grip is plastic but on the other it is made of some fibrous material. It would be interesting to know what year they were first produced.
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