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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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6th Feb 2012, 1:24 am | #121 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Oxford, UK.
Posts: 4,980
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Re: Perils of the 1950s household.....
The older systems were truly horrendous. I well remember our house being rewired in about 1970. The original wiring had been in there since the house was built in 1930, and was pretty lethal. And everything was wired with fabric insulated mains cable, the inner insulation of which was crumbling. At age 14 my Dad showed me how to correctly wire a (new-style!) 3 pin mains plug.
Somewhat later, my wife-to-be's father was in the fire service, eventually becoming Chief of Lothian and Borders. But he had zero capability in electrics, rather surprising given his profession. Many mains wires were bodged with insulating tape, much to my horror, with insulation stripped back well beyond the wire clamp and so forth. He was a real dragon though, so at age 18 I wasn't minded to point out the lethality and fire hazard of his appliance wiring! Craig |
6th Feb 2012, 1:34 am | #122 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Oxford, UK.
Posts: 4,980
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Re: Perils of the 1950s household.....
Quote:
And much to my wife of 34 years chagrin, I still use the kitchen table to work on things, in spite of having plenty of workbenches - which are of coure too cluttered to work on! Craig |
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6th Feb 2012, 10:27 am | #123 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Charmouth, Dorset, UK.
Posts: 3,601
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Re: Perils of the 1950s household.....
I do still have a workshop but doubt if health and safety would allow me to work in it now.
Peter |