Don't try this at home

[broadgage]

Back in the day when almost everything was in short supply after the war, all sorts of improvisations were used to warm beds.

Home made electric blankets some horribly dangerous, and some no worse than a proper one were common.

The better ones used line dropper cord intended for radio sets. A suitable length sewn into a blanket provided a somewhat safe electric blanket.
At least line dropper cord was designed to get warm and was insulated for mains.
If a cellular blanket was to hand, the line dropper cord could be simply threaded through the holes with no sewing required.

A worse bodge was a length of thin lighting flex or bell wire used to make an electric blanket, connected in series with the bedroom electric heater.
Alternatively a length of panel wire could be sewn into a blanket and connected to a suitably low voltage transformer or to a vehicle battery.
The cost of the transformer would likely exceed the price of an electric blanket, but if one already had the transformer ?

Before the electric age, many homes had bed warmers that consisted of a flat copper container on a long handle. Intended to be filled with hot embers or ashes from the fire, and inserted between the top and bottom sheets, and moved around.
A great many of these were modernised by fitting a couple of electric lamps, in a variety of safeish or dangerous ways.

I have one, and used it recently though it is fitted with three lamps, each 24 volt and 30 watts and supplied from a transformer.

[emeritus]

In the 1970's one of my colleagues at Plessey made himself a thermostatically-controlled electric dish warmer for his photographic developing dishes where the heating pad consisted of a large sheet of Veroboard with links connecting all the strips in series to make a single serpentine track, powering it from a transformer.

Another engineer then used the same concept to make an electrically-heated bed for his cat, which had an outside cat kennel. To avoid energy waste, he arranged a microswitch underneath it so that it was only switched on when the cat sat on it.

[TonyDuell]

Talking of dubious electrical wiring...

My grandfather, who died before I was born, had a garden shed that he used as a workshop. The shed I do remember, as my grandmother continued to live in the house.

Anyway, said shed had an electric light and 1 off each 3 pin BS546 15A and 2A sockets. These were powered by a long length of flexible cable ending in a BC lamp adapter plug. Apparently, when my grandfather was working in the shed, this cable was run into the house through the kitchen window and connected to the kitchen light by one of those 2-way BC adapters. No earth of course. And running a 15A socket from that seems to be a little excessive!

[Herald1360]

The circuit would have been protected a bit by the 5A lighting circuit fuse and the 15A socket would have saved changing plugs on something not always used in the shed. Maybe there was a local earth? If not, no more dangerous than a typical brass bulb holdered table lamp of the period.

Just not compliant with modern standards, is all.

[Rubberfingers]

Originally Posted by broadgage

Back in the day when almost everything was in short supply after the war, all sorts of improvisations were used to warm beds.

Home made electric blankets some horribly dangerous, and some no worse than a proper one were common.

The better ones used line dropper cord intended for radio sets. A suitable length sewn into a blanket provided a somewhat safe electric blanket.
At least line dropper cord was designed to get warm and was insulated for mains.
If a cellular blanket was to hand, the line dropper cord could be simply threaded through the holes with no sewing required.

A worse bodge was a length of thin lighting flex or bell wire used to make an electric blanket, connected in series with the bedroom electric heater.
Alternatively a length of panel wire could be sewn into a blanket and connected to a suitably low voltage transformer or to a vehicle battery.
.

"Practical Householder" magazine actually published a diy project article "Making an Electric Blanket" in the mid 1950's. It comprised of a length of thin enamelled copper wire sewn into a blanket and powered from a transformer

[Dave Moll]

Originally Posted by Rubberfingers

... and powered from a transformer

At least it wasn't connected direct to the mains.

[TonyDuell]

That reminds me of a beginner's 'course' in, I think, Practical Wireless in the 1950s. Building ever more complex valve radio receivers. The thing was that they used a 6.3V transformer for the heaters, but got the HT by half-wave rectifying the mains, so the (uncased) chassis was connected to one side of the mains. And some of the simpler sets used headphones. I am not too happy about putting headphones on that are directly connected to the mains...

[dragonser]

Hi, that sounds like one of the power supplies I found when sorting out some items from a neighbours garage...
a selenium rectifier, smoothing choke and a transformer for the heaters....
in a nice wooden box....
I will post a couple of photos here...

[Heatercathodeshort]

This bed warmer still works perfectly. Must have a heating element encased in the Bakelite housing screwed together with the sunken screw heads filled with cork plugs.

I would have loved one of these as a kid. My bedroom window had frost on the inside in the winter. John.

PS Belling made a bed warmer that was simply a 40W rough service lamp in a clamshell tin! You could still buy them in the early 80's.

[robin coleman]

I had a hot water bottle shaped like a hot water bottle made of Bakelite and was using it in the 1980's.

Regards, Robin.

[Dave Moll]

Originally Posted by Heatercathodeshort

Belling made a bed warmer that was simply a 40W rough service lamp in a clamshell tin! You could still buy them in the early 80's.

See my earlier post for a picture of one.

[crusher19860138]

My late nan had a Y adaptor in the 1970's whereby she could unplug the ceiling lightbulb and fit the Y adaptor to incorporate 2 bayonet sockets, one for the light bulb, and the other my nan used to plug her iron in!

[dragonser]

HI,
a photo of the home made power supply. I think more isolation and an earth wire would be the minimum to make it safer !

[Heatercathodeshort]

That is it Dave! They were very popular with the elderly because it was removed before they actually got into bed. They were still slightly worried that they would be fried if they left it plugged in!

It was pretty safe unless you put a 150W lamp in it..John.

[grampy2]

30 years ago as a practising gp often used to visit and get a tingle from someone in bed with an electric blanket on,I used to tell them to get it checked.

[Nickthedentist]

Originally Posted by grampy2

...get a tingle from someone in bed with an electric blanket on,I used to tell them to get it checked.

Sensible advice, and this could indicate a fault, but equally, it is a well-known and harmless phenomenon, simply caused by capacitative coupling between the person and the element, even if the blanket's insulation is absolutely perfect.

It's quite disconcerting though. I first experienced it with an almost new blanket only a few years ago, when I leant out of bed to put my hand on the radiator to see if the CH had come on yet!

[sentinel040]

Originally Posted by Herald1360

Sounds like 600V or so!

I suppose it depends on where the driver had the power controller set to, Notch 1 probably would not be so bad but at full chat, as you say 600+ !

Our 08's used to do it properly via the ancillary supply, but I am surprised none of our lot tried to spice them up a bit, particularly when used as impromptu cab heaters.

[broadgage]

Before the general use of microwave ovens, I saw an interesting way of heating pies and tinned food.

This used an element intended for an electric cooker, the style*
that consisted of two concentric* spirals.
The food to be heated was placed on the inner element but only the outer element was turned on. The food was thus subjected to intense radiant heat and heated rapidly, but not easily burnt.
The inner element could be used, but only via a momentary action switch. A few seconds operation would heat the base of the pie.

This glorious bodge was supported on a few bricks.

*for those unfamiliar with these elements, some electric cookers had one such ring to allow economical use of a small pan on the inner ring only, but the flexibility to fully heat a large pan.
Control via a special Simmerstat control that was turned one way for only the inner element, and the other way for both.

[CambridgeWorks]

Aged about 12 and often hanging around the brickyards near Peterborough, I had a nice afternoon in the cab of an 08 whilst shunting in the exchange sidings alongside the ECML. I remember having a mug of tea with the kettle being boiled on the hotplate in the cab. It surprised me, this luxury in a mere shunter.
Rob

[Herald1360]

I suppose engine crew were used to being able to cook and brew using incidental capabilities of a steam engine so the capability was provided explicitly in later locos.