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Old 30th Jun 2022, 6:01 pm   #1
TonyDuell
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Default An unusual BS546 plug

I bought the plug shown in the attached photos this morning. It's obviously a BS546 round-pin thing and doesn't appear to be anything special until I mention that the plug body is 3.25" in diameter, the cap is slightly larger at 3.75". Yes, it's the 30A one which I'd never actually seen before.
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Old 30th Jun 2022, 6:39 pm   #2
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Default Re: An unusual BS546 plug

They used to be used a lot in theatres years ago, but that one looks brand new.
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Old 30th Jun 2022, 6:48 pm   #3
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Default Re: An unusual BS546 plug

Lovely!

I remember my aunt's house [which 'went electric' in the very-early-1950s] had one of the 2-pin versions in the kitchen and another in the adjoining scullery/wash-house. Both fed from a single 30A fuse in a wooden-cased fusebox.

The 'kitchen' one fed the new-fangled electric cooker; the washroom/scullery one supplied an electrically-heated 'copper' wash-boiler, which the housekeeper would fire-up twice a week to do the laundry.

Earthing? back then nobody worried!

There was also a BS546 2-pin 15A socket in the kitchen which powered the fridge, and - with some deft plug-swapping-action - a 3Kw 'Swan' electric kettle and what I would describe as a suicide-toaster.
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Old 30th Jun 2022, 7:22 pm   #4
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Default Re: An unusual BS546 plug

The 2 pin plugs are BS73.

I grew up in a BS73 wired house. It only gained proper earthing when it was rewired for BS1363 in the mid 60s.
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Old 30th Jun 2022, 7:41 pm   #5
broadgage
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Default Re: An unusual BS546 plug

I have seen one of the 30 amp sockets in a theatre, marked "210 volts DC" And presumably intended for a carbon arc spotlight.
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Old 30th Jun 2022, 7:54 pm   #6
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Default Re: An unusual BS546 plug

Interesting that it has Wandsworth on it. I wonder if it was used by Wandsworth Council maybe in their office premises for something.
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Old 30th Jun 2022, 9:18 pm   #7
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Default Re: An unusual BS546 plug

"Wandsworth" were one of the big manufacturers of electrical plugs/sockets in the 1940s/50s/60s. Nothing to do with the Council, it was just a company one of whose owners came from Wandsworth.

"Wandsworth Electrical Manufacturing Co. Ltd (WEMCO). Founded in 1904 in Birmingham by Edward Thomas Davies, Arthur Reynolds and Francis John Ritchie., manufacturers of switches, plugs and sockets. The name Wandsworth has been chosen as a founding member came from the Wandsworth area of London. The still existing, independent, Wandsworth Group is now based in Woking, Surrey."
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Old 30th Jun 2022, 9:53 pm   #8
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Default Re: An unusual BS546 plug

I was aware that BS 546 included a 30A plug, but this is the first one I have seen a photo of. Perhaps they were needed for 3kW appliances on 110V mains?

Wandsworth also made the eponymous plugs and sockets, where the earth pin was slotted, and a transverse bar in the slot operated an internal switch in the socket when the plug was inserted. My Aunt's circa 1930-built council house on the Becontree estate in Essex had them until the house was rewired in the mid-1960's

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Old 30th Jun 2022, 10:22 pm   #9
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Default Re: An unusual BS546 plug

The 30A ones were used to supply early versions of upmarket electric-range cookers [the kind that had two ovens, a plate-warming compartment, a grill and six rings on the hob]. My aunt's kitchen had one such, installed in the early-50s and still in-use until she went QRT in 2019.
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Old 1st Jul 2022, 4:52 am   #10
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Default Re: An unusual BS546 plug

I think it is new. I did clean it a bit before the photo but it was only surface dirt. Both cord grip screws were there, there were no fragments of wire inside either. Generally used plugs either have missing cord grip screws (one is taken out to remove the cable, not put back) or bits of cut-off wire/cable left in the terminals.

I am told the 30A one fell out of use earlier than the others (which are still being made of course) as it was superceded by the 32A BS4343 (can't remember the CEN number) connector.
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Old 1st Jul 2022, 8:27 am   #11
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Default Re: An unusual BS546 plug

Quote:
Originally Posted by TonyDuell View Post
I think it is new.
Though it appears to be old enough for the cord-grip screws to have gone rusty.
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Old 1st Jul 2022, 8:55 am   #12
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Default Re: An unusual BS546 plug

No, that's just the lighting. The screws to hold the body on are plated steel, those for the cord grip are brass. I have no idea why, but as the 4 former are all identical, ditto the 2 latter, I assume they're original.

Attached is a photo of the 4 sizes of BS546 plug in the obvious order. It shows how large the 30A one is!
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Old 1st Jul 2022, 10:17 am   #13
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Default Re: An unusual BS546 plug

Thanks for the clarification (I hadn't thought of steel v brass) - and for the "identity parade" giving a scale to the 30A plug.
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Old 1st Jul 2022, 11:35 am   #14
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Default Re: An unusual BS546 plug

Amazing. I've gathered many thousands of plugs but never seen evidence of the existence of 30A in real life, despite working in various branches of industry and theatre where one might have expected to find one.
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Old 1st Jul 2022, 11:51 am   #15
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Default Re: An unusual BS546 plug

Oof Oud would probably be interested in those photos for his digital museum of plugs and sockets.
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Old 1st Jul 2022, 2:10 pm   #16
TonyDuell
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Default Re: An unusual BS546 plug

Quote:
Originally Posted by emeritus View Post
Oof Oud would probably be interested in those photos for his digital museum of plugs and sockets.
Thanks, I'll contact him.
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Old 1st Jul 2022, 2:12 pm   #17
TonyDuell
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Default Re: An unusual BS546 plug

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lucien Nunes View Post
Amazing. I've gathered many thousands of plugs but never seen evidence of the existence of 30A in real life, despite working in various branches of industry and theatre where one might have expected to find one.
I'd never seen one, or even a photo of one, before. In fact some people had told me it never actually existed. And then, yesterday, I saw a large round-pin plug in a box of oddments at the local antique market. And then I saw the 'BS546' and '30A' in the moulding, so of course I bought it.
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Old 1st Jul 2022, 6:32 pm   #18
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Default Re: An unusual BS546 plug

Whatever the application, the mind boggles on how big the flex would have to be to handle the max 30A design load. Must have been at least the equivalent of either 4mm or 6mm in today's money.
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Old 1st Jul 2022, 6:44 pm   #19
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Default Re: An unusual BS546 plug

I do wonder if they are still in use in another part of the world. For sure in South Africa round pin plugs of the old UK style are still the norm.
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Old 1st Jul 2022, 9:09 pm   #20
broadgage
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Default Re: An unusual BS546 plug

Quote:
Originally Posted by Roger Ramjet View Post
Whatever the application, the mind boggles on how big the flex would have to be to handle the max 30A design load. Must have been at least the equivalent of either 4mm or 6mm in today's money.
Rog
The terminals and cord grip were larger than those in 15 amp plugs, and well able to accept 4mm flex, or the imperial equivalent thereof.

I have only once seen one in a private house, used for a "fast recovery" immersion heater of 5kw or thereabouts.
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