Belling 322 'Art Deco' electric heater

[Atlantic 52]

Hello,
A couple of years ago I bought this Belling 1-2 Kw heater at an Antiques fair thanks to its super 'art deco' design and solid construction. I had seen one quite a few years ago and have looked for one ever since. I managed to obtain a N.O.S. element & fire clay block on Ebay as the original was cracked and replaced it. It's all working well now but I wondered if anyone has a picture or listing of this rare model in an old catalogue or publication. I have not been able to find any details so far and it would be great if it could be dated. Its original price would be a bonus too.
Many thanks & Happy Christmas,
George

[fetteler]

Crikey George, what a super item you have there and how lucky you were to get an NOS element for it. Unfortunately I have no useful info for you other than my admiration
Steve.

[Lancs Lad]

Sorry no info, George, but that's a grand looking heater!

Any chance of a pic of it powered-up and glowing, please?

Best Christmas Wishes

[buggies]

Looks like a "Cubic" - a (fuzzy) picture is on an ebay page which indicates it was 52 shillings in 1937-38.
Click the right arrow to get the 4th picture along.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/383334118384

EDIT
Also included - but no colour - on page 47 of this catalogue:-https://archive.org/stream/SPCSLtdCCA195294/

[julie_m]

That's stunning!

[Atlantic 52]

Thank you all and thank you Buggies! Thats an amazing result, all has been revealed now. Thank you so much, its fantastic, I can't quite believe it!

[Atlantic 52]

My goodness me, Ive just checked and that 52 shillings in 1937 for the 'Qubic' would be £180 today!

[Lancs Lad]

Can we have a picture of it switched on?

Please??

[Paul_RK]

Originally Posted by Atlantic 52

52 shillings in 1937 for the 'Qubic' would be £180 today!

Sounds a reasonable 2019 price to me if there were a demand and safety standards allowed such a thing to be made - anything involving a substantial lump of cast iron doesn't come cheap.

It is a beauty, and pretty scarce I'd imagine. Never seen one myself, but I've examples of the "Bungalow" (black) and "Pillar" (pink) from page 46 of the catalogue on archive.org.

Paul

[Atlantic 52]

Thanks Paul, I'll have to take a look. I think you are right about the price, it is very heavy and very well made at a time when things like this were made by people in the UK being paid a sensible living wage, albeit not a lot I expect. For 'Lancs Lad' Peter, here's the fire 'lit' with 8.3 amperes of mains current.
I have not seen another 'Qubic' for many years and thankfully this colour is ideal for our living room decor.

[Atlantic 52]

Paul, the Pillar is a nice looking fire. If I see such fires I intend to buy them as they are hard to find. I go to quite a number of Antiques Fairs and car boot sales in the 'kinder weather' months of the year and look out for them including TV's & radios of course!

[Lancs Lad]

Thankyou so much, George, for the picture of the heater switched on. Very nice indeed.

I wouldn't want to get my fingers anywhere near it when it was live, though!

[Dave Moll]

Having a similarly "unsafe" Belling fire, I have been puzzling how to operate in a way that makes the live (and hot) elements inaccessible. The only thing I can think of is to enclose and fix the entire appliance within a cage that puts it beyond the reach of fingers.

[ajgriff]

Is it any less safe than an open fire? Presumably people didn't think so in the nineteen thirties when they would have used fire guards to protect young children. Beautiful fire, wish I had one.

Alan

[Paul_RK]

I've not been reluctant to use such fires - can't think of any obvious perils so long as they can't be knocked over, nothing can fall on them, and there aren't any small children or large pets in the vicinity. Touching the live element isn't at all tempting, and we haven't a toasting fork on the premises. Somehow though I still always choose a Belling Champion when being left unattended is a part of the brief.

Paul

[julie_m]

Perhaps they were thinking the fact of the element being electrified would prevent people from wanting to touch it and so burn themselves, and the fact of the element being hot would deter anyone from wanting to touch it and receive an electric shock?

It's hardly any more dangerous than an open fire, especially if you were burning wood with an unknown moisture content and a tendency to spit out burning fragments. People with children or pets would have used a fireguard with a fine metal mesh screen, which would have worked just as well with an electric fire.

P.S. Did I mention, it looks even better when it's on?

[usradcoll1]

Originally Posted by julie_m

Perhaps they were thinking the fact of the element being electrified would prevent people from wanting to touch it and so burn themselves, and the fact of the element being hot would deter anyone from wanting to touch it and receive an electric shock?

It's hardly any more dangerous than an open fire, especially if you were burning wood with an unknown moisture content and a tendency to spit out burning fragments. People with children or pets would have used a fireguard with a fine metal mesh screen, which would have worked just as well with an electric fire.

P.S. Did I mention, it looks even better when it's on?

They had some kind of an electric fire that was popular here in the 1920's. It was over 1500 watts because it was designed for 230 volts. It was styled like a set of logs and gave the illusion of a natural fire.
When I was doing TV repair, the home owner plugged his TV into the receptacle intended for the fire and the damper tube exploded and fuse and one WW resistor.
The customer was lucky that the set wasn't a more expensive model with a mains transformer.
The home was older and wired when they used the same wiring devices for either voltage.
Dave, USradcoll1 Always interested.

[dave walsh]

Apart from the heat of the element as a deterrent there would be more caution back then. Even now many people [perhaps more] are frightened of electricity. I know Tradesmen who can do most things but [apart from not being suitably qualified anyway] wouldn't touch electrics. The main risk would be people sticking metal things into the element, as per an open fire for toast. You might burn yourself with the fire but no voltage there.

I recall the more futuristic [infra red?] 3kw fires in the late 60's/early seventies had a sort of Mica tube surrounding the elements. Children need protecting from most things but it's about awareness. My Grandmother died subsequent to burns when her nightdress ignited from an electric heater but also and significantly, in those days sleep ware was often made from highly inflammable materials. That was the same with domestic Sofas into the seventies, remembering the Woolworths fire in Manchester that eventually changed the law!

Dave W

[stevehertz]

Sell it to me. Now.

[G6Tanuki]

Originally Posted by dave walsh

I recall the more futuristic [infra red?] 3kw fires in the late 60's/early seventies had a sort of Mica tube surrounding the elements.

Yes, that was a thing in the 70s : my parents had one of these:

https://trevorhowsam.com/wp-content/...155188577.jpeg

[with a sort-of avocado-green surround, as was nauseatingly-popular back then]

Three sheathed-tube elements. I never managed to convince my parents that running this thing from electricity was at least 3x what the same amount of heat from their oil-boiler would cost.