Unusual 2 Amp socket

[Tractorfan]

Hi,
While assembling a display of British plugs & sockets for an upcoming French organised UK Cultural Exhibition (I'm showing some old British radio sets too). I found this unusual MK 2amp flush switch socket that I'd forgotten about.
It doesn't seem to be of any standard design, and I don't know if there was a matching back box to go with it, or if it was meant as a replacement for another brand of socket.
Just curious as I've never seen another one since. I can't even remember where this one came from.
Cheers, Pete.

[paulsherwin]

2A BS546. Used for things like table lamps.

[ronbryan]

I think it must have been intended for some sort of metal back box as it has the earth connection extended to one of the fixing screws.

Ron

[Cobaltblue]

These are still available.

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/mains...ckets/1999226/
https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/plug-sockets/1884369/

I have or have had dozens of these they were used for shop fittings.

I helped a friend do a shop display in the early 90's we didn't re-use them simply fitted new. They were hidden in the display but connected to spots, strip lights and fluorescent fittings.

When I moved to this house there were a few on the skirting board used as Paul says for lighting.

They were actually connected to a light switch by the door.

Cheers

Mike T

[ronbryan]

Surely the point of the OP's socket illustrated is that it is not a square fitting and there are four fixing holes in the corners, rather than two on the centre-line. This is what makes it unusual and incompatible with a standard box, not the fact that it is a 3 pin 2A BS546 socket.

Ron

[turretslug]

I was just about to say the same as Ron- i.e. that it's the fitting that's unusual with its relatively large 4-hole plate and not the 2A format itself. The typical low-height type sockets with a surface back-box, evidently aimed at skirting-board etc. installation, only had two fixing holes.

Re. the 2A plugs in the RS link, one of these with a short 3-core flex to 13A trailing socket was part of my standard travel kit when working around the country with work- it wasn't unusual to find these in hotel rooms, also notably student halls. I excused myself as a "responsible user" who wouldn't overload them!

[Nickthedentist]

Our extension over the garage, built in 1966 apparently, had a very similar, 4-hole mounting, flush-mounted, MK, brown Bakelite socket, albeit a BS1363 double one.

I think the back box was galvanized steel, but I have seen plenty of plywood back boxes used in that era.

[Cobaltblue]

Apologies I missed that it was the 4 fixing screws that was unusual.


We have just removed every scrap of the existing wiring and although I rewired the house in 1990 anything flush mounted and wired with PVC was left in situ at that time.


This included several dual gang13A switched sockets with 4 fixing screws in the same pattern. I could not easily change them because the back box didn't accept the standard 2 screw type and the lugs prevented the normal sockets from going into the back box.


They were to me just a nuisance since the standard screws didn't fit either.


I chucked all the removed sockets into a box if I come across it I will see if I kept any of the 4 screw variety to see who they were made by.


Cheers


Mike T

[G6Tanuki]

I wonder if the 4 holes in the corners were intended to take woodscrews to hold the socket - recessed - into a hole cut in a skirting-board or the sort of oak-panelling that was popular a century or so back in 'upmarket' houses, offices, hotels etc?

The 4-screw dual-13A BS1363 sockets were the norm in times back: my parents' house [built 1958] had them throughout - made by GEC and connected up using rubber-covered Pirelli cable. When their garage was extended in the mid-70s (to accomodate washing-machine/tumble-drier/fridge/freezer) the 13A sockets - MK this time - were also of the 4-screw type, linked back to a blue-grey "MEM" sub-fusebox - but this time wired using 'singles' run in proper galvanised conduit, as was then considered appropriate for such a location.

[Tractorfan]

Hi, and thanks for all you replies.
Alas, I didn't phrase my question very well.
I realise that the socket itself is a bog standard 2 amp one, got loads of them myself, now used mainly for loudspeaker connectors.
No, it was the unusual rectangular plate and four point fixing that I was querying as I'd never seen one like that before. The ones I know are the usual standard square plates.
Maybe this was a 'low profile' one to fit into a skirting? I can just imagine them alongside the massive fire place in some oak paneled Baronial hall somewhere, supplying wrought iron lamp standards via a matching brown plug and cotton covered twisted flex!
Apologies for the confusion.
Cheers, Pete.

[Lancs Lad]

I wonder why the fixings securing the rear part (containing the terminals) to the surface plate had to be visible at the front?

Surely there was no need for such a method of construction. If nothing else, it's rather unsightly - and just makes the overall appearance look terribly fussy.

[Nickthedentist]

Unsightly, maybe, but probably stronger than using screws from the back portion into the faceplate, as with later models. It probably allows the faceplate to be thinner too.

[Lucien Nunes]

There were all sorts of proprietary form factors and fixing-screw positions before they were standardised, normally used with either pressed steel or cast-iron flush-mount back boxes. The centres on this socket possibly match some of MK's earlier offerings, maybe even going as far back as the original MK proprietary plug designs. I don't think they have any relationship with the 4-lug 2-gang layout.

[Tractorfan]

Hi,
Out of interest, I also have this socket which is a 5 amp one with a chrome plated brass plate and, again, four fixings. It's another MK offering, and it has an interlocking mechanism between the earth pin and the switch; the switch can't be operated without a plug and, conversely, the plug is trapped in place when the switch is 'on'.
This one is older, as there is no 'MK' logo on the front, and the switch is a 'tumbler' type instead of the simpler spring strip type.
Cheers, Pete.

[teetoon]

Hi Pete. I remember these sockets as my Dad got a few from our local Radio and Electrical Whosalers (ERW) when they were clearing old stock. Would have been late 60's or early 70's.
Anyway, I still have the one I bought and have just braved the garage and it's 8 legged inhabitants to find it.
Sorry the lighting is not good enough but you can get the general idea of the metal back box that it came with. It's around 3" x 2" x 1, 3/4" .
The other one's my Dad kept were the brown variety as your's.

David.

[teetoon]

Some better pics.
For some reason it looks better if I use "portrait" mode ? Must remember that.
Also used a white background. Learning all the time !

David

[bionicmerlin]

I think it’s quite a neat little socket.
Poor sparky having to chop out a hole that deep for the box. Andy

[G6Tanuki]

Aren't those boxes designed for surface-mount and conduit, rather than recessed?

[stevehertz]

A lot of these things were screwed directly to cut outs in wooden skirting boards. I'm not saying that that is what they were exclusively designed for, but for sure many would have been used that way and held in place with four wood screws.

[ColinTheAmpMan1]

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

I wonder if the 4 holes in the corners were intended to take woodscrews to hold the socket - recessed - into a hole cut in a skirting-board or the sort of oak-panelling that was popular a century or so back in 'upmarket' houses, offices, hotels etc?

Doesn't that negate the observation in post #3 that the earth connector is extended to one of the mounting-screws, presumably to ensure that whatever this socket is mounted on is earthed? Who earths wood?

Colin.