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Old 17th Sep 2019, 12:18 pm   #1
OscarFoxtrot
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Default Apprentice's electrical notes

Drawings by an electrician apprentice, probably 1920s or 1930s.

House wiring, lighting, electric bells and house telephones

http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php...66295463618900

Approx 17 MB so too big for forum hosting. Will disappear after 100 days inactivitity.
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Old 17th Sep 2019, 6:54 pm   #2
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Default Re: Apprentice's electrical notes

I've always been vaguely fascinated by this sort of thing, along with the "Trade test pieces" journeyman electricians/workshop-mechanics/potters/plumbers/carpenters/joiners/engravers were required to produce in orcer to be admitted to the appropriate 'guild'.

Intriguing as a period-piece and a historical snapshot - but when a couple of decades back I tried to interest various museums/historical-artifacts-societies with my late father's WWII-era document-archive [which included a bunch of stuff from his time attached to Pye in Cambridge - they were not allowed to mention Magnetrons and had to refer to them as 'the thing'] nobody was interested, so "in the interests of national security" I had the lot shredded.

Crochet/embroidered 'samplers' can at least be framed and displayed as ornaments; this can't really be said of charts showing B-H magnetisation-curves for DC-energized field-coils.
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Old 17th Sep 2019, 7:13 pm   #3
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Default Re: Apprentice's electrical notes

One of the sellers at the local 'antique' (aka 'junk') fair had a couple of similar notebook things with notes, typed handouts etc from some course on telegraphy/teleprinters, probably WW2 military.

I was looking at them and the seller said 'You are probably the only person here who will understand them, you can have them if you want'. They are quite interesting, sometime I will scan the more generic and understandable parts.

FWIW if I had any spare wall space (not occupied by bookshelves, etc) I'd rather fill it with technical diagrams than more traditional art. But then I have a very unusual house...
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Old 17th Sep 2019, 9:40 pm   #4
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Default Re: Apprentice's electrical notes

Thanks for sharing that, very interesting, very neat and beautiful hand writing too.
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Old 17th Sep 2019, 11:05 pm   #5
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Default Re: Apprentice's electrical notes

Some interesting wiring arrangements. Away from home at present so viewing on the rather small screen of my phone, must have a detailed look when I get back home. Many of the luminaries and fittings look like those in the 1911 GEC catalogue. Some interesting things at page 26 on, not only a 3 pin plug used in the modern way to provide an earth, but also the use of 3 pin plugs on unearthed arrangements where the plug connects two independently switched lights, each connected by 2 core flex to the plug, the centre contact being common, the other two socket contacts being connected to the mains via respective switches. I recall that the original patent for the Lindstrom 3 pin plug only describes its use with three core cable to allow a table lamp to be controlled by its own switch or a wall switch at the socket, although wiki's AC power plugs does not mention this fact and only refers to its (subsequent) use as a conventional earthed plug.

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Old 19th Sep 2019, 9:03 am   #6
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Default Re: Apprentice's electrical notes

In the 1980's I after looked after the pabx telephones at Birmingham University for GPO/BT. They also had a Reliance engineer who looked after the PAX phones. One day, he (and his apprentice) approached me to ask how to put an extension off a single telephone AKA plan 1a. So I ripped a sheet out of my notebook and quickly drew a two telephone p!an 1a complete with strapping and cord colours.
He duly thanked me and as I walked away, I couldn't help feeling a bit smug when I heard the apprentice say "Wow, he did that straight out of his head!".
i know I'm not the only person who could have done that in those days but it's testament to the GPO training we received, which in my opinion, was second to none.
I love these old diagrams and the people who could draw such things.
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Old 19th Sep 2019, 8:26 pm   #7
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Default Re: Apprentice's electrical notes

I remember the same smug feeling drawing the classic 1960s radio circuit on the school blackboard using 6 Ge PNP transistors with driver and output transformers, all complete with component values.
We were up to bulbs & batteries in the science curriculum at the time.
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Old 12th Nov 2019, 11:05 pm   #8
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Default Re: Apprentice's electrical notes

TD - same training that has gone on for a long time. Sadly now departed ,from my viewing of the OR Facebook FORUM GROUP. But plan 1A was the bread and butter of a subs app installer in those days . I also remember the look of amazement on our maintenance TO faces when we subs apps blokes were asked to help fault a 105/107. Most times it was a blown transistor switch,and these highly tech blokes would prefer to change the unit rather than fault it. But it's each to their own. As a transmission TO, I'd take any transmission relay set to the auto guys for faulting, and they would bring any electronics to us.
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Old 17th Nov 2019, 9:28 pm   #9
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Default Re: Apprentice's electrical notes

Quote:
Originally Posted by Oldcodger View Post
As a transmission TO, I'd take any transmission relay set to the auto guys for faulting, and they would bring any electronics to us.
Reminds me of when I transferred to transmission after many years on auto - guess who got the job of adjusting the carpenter relays in the Units Telegraph?
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Old 17th Nov 2019, 11:00 pm   #10
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Default Re: Apprentice's electrical notes

198- I did telegraph /telex relays in the firts TRS I was on relief. But on the later larger ones, we had no relays except for 2000 types, and we were allergic to those.
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Old 19th Nov 2019, 4:02 pm   #11
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Default Re: Apprentice's electrical notes

Still got all my Crossbar training course notes, and many of the Strowger ones, back from my Plessey apprenticeship in the 70's.

Not even a Crossbar rack in a museum now, came and went inside 15 years.

Last edited by AC/HL; 19th Nov 2019 at 5:59 pm. Reason: Political aside edited
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Old 22nd Nov 2019, 1:12 pm   #12
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Originally Posted by woodchips View Post
Still got all my Crossbar training course notes, and many of the Strowger ones, back from my Plessey apprenticeship in the 70's.

Not even a Crossbar rack in a museum now, came and went inside 15 years.
Crossbar lasted a little longer than 15 years in the public network. First was Broughton exchange near Preston, Lancs. in 1964 and the last was Droitwich going electronic in 1994. Interesting that Pre-2000 exchanges outlived Crossbar - the last pre-2000 being Cabrach UAX12 in the Cairngorms, Scotland in March 1995 - photo of it in its last day of service.

I have a working Crossbar system albeit a bit small ! An Ericsson ARD624 system.

Only 'real' crossbar I ever worked on was a PX2000 course at Beeston in mid-1970's then getting a 600 line one going once it had been installed. Three suites of racks! And now I've got a 500 line PABX that will fit in a small biscuit tin that I'm playing with! And my Raspberry PI system has over 250 working lines currently registered on it!

How things gave changed since my GPO apprenticeship days (when some exchanges were still 'winding the handle' to call the operator) !
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Old 22nd Nov 2019, 2:43 pm   #13
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Default Re: Apprentice's electrical notes

Quote:
Originally Posted by Pellseinydd View Post
How things gave changed since my GPO apprenticeship days (when some exchanges were still 'winding the handle' to call the operator) !
And to "ring off" when the call was finished.
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Old 25th Nov 2019, 11:13 am   #14
woodchips
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Default Re: Apprentice's electrical notes

It is nice to know that they did last a little longer. Looking back I find them fascinating, what you could do with relays.
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Old 25th Nov 2019, 11:34 pm   #15
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Originally Posted by woodchips View Post
It is nice to know that they did last a little longer. Looking back I find them fascinating, what you could do with relays.
I believe there is a crossbar PABX surviving in preservation somewhere in Hampshire but can't think of any other working crossbar in the UK. I know of three other Ericsson ARD624 that survive, one in Ireland, one in Finland and one in the USA.

Ian J
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Old 26th Nov 2019, 5:18 pm   #16
198 kHz
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Default Re: Apprentice's electrical notes

Quote:
Originally Posted by woodchips View Post
It is nice to know that they did last a little longer. Looking back I find them fascinating, what you could do with relays.
As an apprentice in a Strowger GSC, I remember the 'wow' factor in watching an '11 & over' final selector self-stepping vertically when it found the first 10 lines busy.
After TXE2 electronics, transmission, and retirement, I still have fond memories and respect for the design features of a UAX13.
A few days before it closed, I taped the sound of Arley (West Mids) UAX13, later made into an MP3.
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Old 27th Nov 2019, 4:06 pm   #17
Pellseinydd
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 198 kHz View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by woodchips View Post
It is nice to know that they did last a little longer. Looking back I find them fascinating, what you could do with relays.
As an apprentice in a Strowger GSC, I remember the 'wow' factor in watching an '11 & over' final selector self-stepping vertically when it found the first 10 lines busy.
After TXE2 electronics, transmission, and retirement, I still have fond memories and respect for the design features of a UAX13.
A few days before it closed, I taped the sound of Arley (West Mids) UAX13, later made into an MP3.
Plenty of Strowger is still working in preservation in the UK including UAX13s. Five preserved railways still using Strowger 'for real' .
I have a working 1929 UAX plus I've got UAX12s and a UAX13. Also got the last working 'Strowger' from the BT network - Foula exchange in July 1995. See 'BT Digital Exchanges - a Timeline'
There's a working TXE2 at Avoncroft Museum at Bromsgrove.
Even BT still have an electro-mechanical exchange working in London but not allowed to say anymore about it - yet!
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