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Old 6th Jan 2012, 9:19 pm   #1
Colourstar
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Default Perils of the 1950s household.....

I've been enjoying reading some issues of The Practical Householder, the companion magazine to Practical Television etc, from the prolific F J Camm stable.

This is F J C's editorial piece from July 1956. Read and cringe!

"ELECTRICITY- THE NEED FOR CARE
Unlike domestic jobs involving use of paint, wood or ordinary tools where carelessness cannot have serious results, extra care is needed when dealing with electricity. The need for this care is stressed by the Home Office in a summary of electrical accidents in the home for 1954. These indicate that many of them could have been avoided by a little forethought. For example, one accident was caused by an electric fire falling from a shelf into the water of a bath. Another bathroom accident was caused by connecting a portable electric fire to the mains by three pieces of twin lighting flex joined together with a kettle connector, two-pin connector and plug. A housewife received injuries when, using a vacuum cleaner, she touched a fire guard which was in contact with the metalwork of the cleaner. The three-core flexible cable was fitted with a two-pin plug to which was attached a bayonet-cap two-pin adaptor, so that the cleaner could be used from a lampholder. Examination showed that the green earth core had been twisted together with the red core and connected to one of the terminals, with the result that the metalwork of the appliance became alive each time this pin happened to be connected to the live line. In another case, the green earth core was left free inside a lamp adaptor and made contact with one of the terminals which happened to be connected to the live line. Of course, an accident resulted. Another man, using a portable electric drill, was injured immediately he switched it on because he had failed effectively to earth it. A wireless set in the kitchen was supplied from a two-way adaptor on the light fitting, via a jointed flex hung over a nail in the wall. The owner found that the set could not be switched off in the normal way and decided to pull apart the joint in the flex. He came into contact with the live conductor and received a shock.

All of the cases reported show that the accidents were caused by carelessness and in some cases by ignorance of the precautions which are necessary when dealing with electrical apparatus taking full mains voltage. If you are unaware of the principles of electricity, you should take the advice of a competent electrician"

Well, having read that I can't help wondering if we can interpret the word 'injured' as 'killed' and 'accident' as 'fatality'. Even so, it's pretty alarming stuff. Of course today with every appliance now fitted with a moulded plug and multiple appliances run from the ubiquitous 4-way trailing socket, the appalling bodgery outlined in the editorial is, one hopes, a thing of the past.

Steve J
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Old 6th Jan 2012, 10:44 pm   #2
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Default Re: Perils of the 1950s household.....

Quote:
Originally Posted by Colourstar View Post
The appalling bodgery outlined in the editorial is, one hopes, a thing of the past.

Steve J
I work as an electrician, I do quite a lot of appliance testing and testing of electrical installations. Some of the things I see are absolutely unbelievable. Most people are surrounded by health and safety and automatically think everything is safe. The most common one is where many people think they can't get hurt by electricity now because they have an RCD in the consumer unit.

I have a huge folder of photos, and some of the things I have come across testing have left me speechless.

Just recently appliance testing I pulled a plug from the wall, the cover screw was missing and the lid had been pushed onto the inserted plug. As the cover came away I contacted the live fuse. The shock resulted in me smacking my head on the underside of the table. Quite funny really, looking back, but I could have been killed.
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Old 6th Jan 2012, 11:06 pm   #3
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Arrow Re: Perils of the 1950s household.....

I knew a keen gardener during the 1990's who owned two green-houses. The 240v mains was fed to one of them. At the other end of that green-house was a socket with a plug and cable attached. That cable ran to the other green-house, whereupon the cable was connected to another 13-A plug, connected to a socket for powering green-house no. 2. I tried to explain the danger: he didn't understand my concern, remarking "But I'm the only one who comes in here!"

I once had to spend a short time in a down-market B & B establishment. One evening, when the evening meals were being cooked, there suddenly came a loud bang! from the kitchen. Subsequent investigation showed that the 4-ring plus oven electric cooker had been connected to a chunk of 2.5 T & E cable . . . . terminated in a 13-amp. plug into an ordinary socket! The T & E cable had completely melted and the inevitable short-circuit had occurred. Moreover, upon inspection of the charred remains of the plug, I found a piece of solid, tubular brass where a fuse should have been. Horrendous tale, I know - but perfectly true.

Al.
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Old 6th Jan 2012, 11:28 pm   #4
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Default Re: Perils of the 1950s household.....

I was up and running in the '50s and electric bowl fires plugged into a BC adaptor on the light fitting were the norm, no earth of course I think they were only 600 watts but if an iron was plugged in as well it would be approaching the maximum load for a lighting circuit. This sort of overloading was common as most of the older houses had very few sockets, my grandparents house had only two, one upstairs and one down and these were only two pin.

I have seen most of the things mentioned but believe it or not there were very few fatalities in fact I never heard of one in our area, there were many shocks though and in my work as a TV engineer several a day were accepted as the norm.

We stayed in a cottage in Scotland a few years ago, the bathroom was an education, there was a flourescent fitting and double 13a socket on the bathroom wall above the wash basin, in the airing cupboard all the feeds were joined together with plastic screw connectors. The cupboard under the stairs concealed the feed to a storage heater a join in which was wrapped up in plastic tape. Strangely we didn't see it advertised the next year.

Peter
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Old 6th Jan 2012, 11:40 pm   #5
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Default Re: Perils of the 1950s household.....

Does anyone know of a link to, or indeed have hard copies of, the official 1950s and/or 1960s annual reports of UK electrical accidents ? Apparently there was an official - 'HM Electrical Adviser' - who prepared these reports and although his prime remit covered the workplace he also included statistics for accidents in the home. I'd be really interested to learn, with official backup, about the details - if possible what sort of appliances/circumstances/mistakes led to domestic accidents.

Cheers,

GJ
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Old 7th Jan 2012, 2:06 am   #6
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Default Re: Perils of the 1950s household.....

It is unbelievable some of the bodges I have come across over the years. I often wonder about the sanity of these bodgers, they obviously have no fear!

I have had a few radios that were lethal, a DAC90 comes to mind where someone had replaced the two pin plug by wrapping the wire round the pins then secured them with Sellotape!

Pictured below is a recent find. Replacing a mains lead with 1.5mm lighting cable and insulating the join with bicycle inner tube patches must have seemed like a laugh after a few beers

Mark
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Old 7th Jan 2012, 2:26 am   #7
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Default Re: Perils of the 1950s household.....

Quote:
Originally Posted by matthewhouse View Post

I have a huge folder of photos, and some of the things I have come across testing have left me speechless.
Is the last one really what I think it is, backfeeding a lighting circuit via a plug-plug lead?
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Old 7th Jan 2012, 2:34 am   #8
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Default Re: Perils of the 1950s household.....

I've just tried to find a book I have somewhere which dates from the 30's, one of those Practical Electricity & Wireless type books, where one chapter starts 'You may have marvelled at how your electrician works deftly with live wires, connecting supplies with a deft twist of the fingers without a care in the world. Well, he is the consummate professional, and will always stand on a sheet of dry plywood before touching the conductors....."
I will scan it when I find it.
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Old 7th Jan 2012, 2:56 am   #9
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Default Re: Perils of the 1950s household.....

Electric cookers connected by a 13A plug were quite common a few years ago, especially in rented houses. This wasn't all that unsafe so long as the oven and several boiling rings weren't all switched on at once, and even if they were the 13A plug fuse should let go before anything serious happened. I certainly never heard of anybody injured or killed as a result of this (obviously undesirable) practice.
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Old 7th Jan 2012, 9:28 am   #10
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Default Re: Perils of the 1950s household.....

In those days most of us had some common sense.
Quote:
Originally Posted by F J Camm
All of the cases reported show that the accidents were caused by carelessness ...
The blame culture wasn't even a glimmer in the eye of the Elfin Safety nannies then.

In the distant days of my TV field service, we certainly saw some horrors like male bayonet plugs connected to 1kW electric fires dangling from a light socket. The flex made a small contribution to the room heat!
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Old 7th Jan 2012, 11:20 am   #11
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Default Re: Perils of the 1950s household.....

Quote:
Originally Posted by GrimJosef
Does anyone know of a link to, or indeed have hard copies of, the official 1950s and/or 1960s annual reports of UK electrical accidents ? Apparently there was an official - 'HM Electrical Adviser' - who prepared these reports and although his prime remit covered the workplace he also included statistics for accidents in the home. I'd be really interested to learn, with official backup, about the details - if possible what sort of appliances/circumstances/mistakes led to domestic accidents.

Cheers,

GJ
Searching the online catalogue at The National Archives with the word "Electrocution" brings up several hits. One relates to a boy being electrocuted by a TV set. I'll have a look at the file on my next visit to TNA.
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Old 7th Jan 2012, 11:44 am   #12
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Default Re: Perils of the 1950s household.....

Gosh, looks like things are just as bad today. The photo of the plug with 240v on it's pins is horrendous!

Here's some more from Practical Householder, which is hope is legible. It includes a guide to wiring plugs, how to fit an immersion heater into an iron radiator and the classic home-made electric blanket! (although it is low voltage )

Steve
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Old 7th Jan 2012, 2:01 pm   #13
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Default Re: Perils of the 1950s household.....

Quote:
Originally Posted by OscarFoxtrot View Post
Is the last one really what I think it is, backfeeding a lighting circuit via a plug-plug lead?
The lower socket supplies power, the upper one is connected to a pendant in the cupboard, when you switch the upper socket on the light lights. There were young children running about in this house. The one with the oval flex did the same in another cupboard, this one I got shocked when I pulled the plug out.

I wanted to take the leads away but the owner was having none of it, so they were dismantled and an electrical danger notification was issued. No doubt when I left the leads were re-assembled and put back into place. I have no legal power to isolate a dangerous circuit if the customer won't let me.

Last edited by matthewhouse; 7th Jan 2012 at 2:05 pm. Reason: Missed a bit.
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Old 7th Jan 2012, 2:52 pm   #14
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Default Re: Perils of the 1950s household.....

Quote:
Originally Posted by Colourstar View Post
...and the classic home-made electric blanket! (although it is low voltage )

Steve
Insulated with asbestos no doubt!
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Old 7th Jan 2012, 6:42 pm   #15
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Default Re: Perils of the 1950s household.....

Some of the aforementioned horrors are nothing to what I used to see in a previous life working in what we shall generically call the third world, or the dark continent. There were very few fatalities given the usual state of the electrics. I suspect this was because the concept of earthing appeared not to have made it out of Europe, so in the case of bodily contact with the live conductor, the whole person tended to become live without any real effect, unless of course there was a path made back to the source.

Gordon
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Old 7th Jan 2012, 8:39 pm   #16
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Default Re: Perils of the 1950s household.....

Quote:
Originally Posted by ex seismic View Post
Some of the aforementioned horrors are nothing to what I used to see in a previous life working in what we shall generically call the third world, or the dark continent. There were very few fatalities given the usual state of the electrics.

Gordon
Possibly also because most of the native's houses were not mains fed, but relied on old car batteries to power lights, radio etc. I worked in an ex UK province (in the same continent) in the early 80's .We had taken our UK cooker with us, complete with maker's provided mains lead. One posting in the countryside, we got a safety visit from what I would loosely call an Improver Electrician, who decided that his idea of provision of power was superior to well qualified UK designers and removed the T&E, double insulated lead, replacing it with single insulated red & black, with an uninsulated earth. I had a quick chat to his boss, for a proper electrician to return to undo his handiwork. I also had dealings with him in another town, where he could not work out the principles of a two way light switch. Fortunately we acquired an ex UK trained electrician who sorted out the problem in minutes flat.

Possibly as said the reason for low casuality rating was lack of mains.
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Old 7th Jan 2012, 9:19 pm   #17
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Default Re: Perils of the 1950s household.....

Hi Gents, possibly the worst example of wiring was seen on at the house of my father-in-law's neighbour, a gent in his late 70's and a "handyman" all his life.
The house had a large and long garden in which his grandchildren used to play and in which at the same time, said handyman plied his hobby.
His variant on the double plug extension was to use several, on old tatty pieces of cable, some 2 core, some TRS, some PVC. The connection method was to use a 13A multi adaptor, which simply laid on the ground, live pins on display and a plug in each socket.
He did not see a hazard to his grandchildren (post birth contraception?) as he claimed to have told them to keep away.
A word with his formidable wife led to the whole lot going on his bonfire.
He did seem a little ungrateful at his lethal tricks being exposed.

Ed
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Old 7th Jan 2012, 9:24 pm   #18
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Default Re: Perils of the 1950s household.....

Hello, Remember when they used to clip cables along walls with those buckle clips? Well my Gran's house, wired for electricity in 1958, had 3 cables running from the fuse boxes clipped up the side of the window frame. One cold christmas when the wind was blowing, my Gran went to drawing pin the side of the curtains back to try and stop a draft. We heard a pop and my Gran wasn't sure what had happened. With hindsight she was clearly in shock. My Dad realised upon inspection what had happened as the drawing pin had left a small hole in the cable. The lights were still on and Grandad was still watching the telly which only left the immersion heater. Running up the stairs to flick the switch, there was no light from the neon in the Wylex switch. Dad rewired the fuse and all was well again including Gran thank goodness.

Many years later, I was putting in a new feed for the attics and bought a length of trunking, so I could remove the cables from the windowframe and have enough space for any further cables that might be needed. I noticed the hole in the cable and thought as it was going to be in the trunking, I would slice it open to see why the fuse had blown. Surely Gran wasn't that well earthed to cause a 15 amp fuse to blow? Well I got a surprise, as not only was there a blackened hole in the red wire, the single strand of earth wire had been blown in two! So there was no continuity in the earth wire all that time. Good job the water pipes provided earth back then. In fact, the main earth for that installation was a wire connected to the water pipe in the toilet, which went to a junction box that fed the kitchen socket!

No wonder they are so fussy about installations these days.

David.
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Old 7th Jan 2012, 10:31 pm   #19
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Default Re: Perils of the 1950s household.....

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ed_Dinning View Post
Hi Gents, possibly the worst example of wiring was seen on at the house of my father-in-law's neighbour, a gent in his late 70's and a "handyman" all his life.
The house had a large and long garden in which his grandchildren used to play and in which at the same time, said handyman plied his hobby.
.

Ed
Whoops. Reminds me of something my son came across. He rents a house across the road from me, which was "modified" by a DIY bloke. To date the landlord has had his electrician find some horrors. Likewise the plumber & central heating bloke.

But possibly the worst, my son found. Out to the rear, in the back garden the DIY bloke had some home made sheds mounted across the rear fence, with a mains supply to them. Also out back was a small earth plot. One day my son decided to dig it over. In one place he heard a bang and going indoors he found the house RCD had tripped. It reset, but he found that there was now no power to the shed. He asked me to help as he'd found a cut cable in the plot he'd been digging. We decided to investigate and found/traced both ends of the cable. One headed in the direction of the shed. The other in the direction of the house. It turned out that close by the cable heading housewards there was a junction, enclosed in a plastic bag, of two yellow (possibly site lighting cables) with a layer of tape. Inside was a choc block (5A variety on 13A cable) covered in more tape, with green growing from every orifice .
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Old 7th Jan 2012, 10:53 pm   #20
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Default Re: Perils of the 1950s household.....

It would be reassuring to think that present day regulations would prevent bodged installations as described here. However, in my recent professional experience, sadly there are many instances of electricians who claim to be registered with approved bodies whose work falls badly short of what could be considered acceptable standards of workmanship. In all cases those responsible were British nationals claiming appropriate qualifications.

The dangers may be less obvious than in the examples shown here but still very significant. The apparent causes include inadequate design, false economy, for example by attempting to use accessory back boxes as junctions for excessive numbers of cables, failure to use essential accessories with fittings, ignoring manufacturers' instructions and simple carelessness. All this is compounded by general ignorance of building construction, even such basic points as attempting to use plastic masonry plugs where plasterboard anchors should have been used, or running wood screws directly into dry linings.

In many cases the electrician has been sent to site with the wrong or incompatible materials and has misguidedly attempted to do what he can with what is to hand or knows that he has no choice if he wants to keep his job.

Self certification, registration schemes and what enforcement authorities exist all seem incapable of addressing the problem and all too often managers, devoid of any technical ability, are concerned only with actionable legal liability. Where a public body is involved, embarrassed administrators are unwilling to take action which might reflect badly on themselves and the remedial costs are absorbed and explained away by vague pseudo-technical journalese.

Unfortunately, once low standards become common in a geographic area, it soon becomes difficult for the responsible tradesman to survive.

Apart from the dangers and cost to clients and the general public, such poor workmanship puts conscientious electricians at an unfair disadvantage as they are so often undercut by the quotation which resulted in the work being awarded to one of these chancers.


PMM
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