As a matter of interest does anyone know how sockets were connected in the "olden days".
I remember lighting was 5A fusewire, presumably this would do the entire house?
Then there was 15A and 5A sockets. The 5A could be two pin.
There was also a few houses around here with 13A? Wylex.
Were ring mains used, or were the sockets fed from their own seperate fuse?
I cannot recollect whether Wylex plugs carried fuses, but the 5 and fifteen A didn't
HN
The topography question is interesting because I distinctly remember the "3kW" plugs having the words Ring Main emboss on them and they took a BS1363 fuse in a rather nice brass clamp but IIRC all the sockets in my Grandmothers house were radially wired back to the CU.
The 5A plugs were had a little fuse about 20mm long, and the piggy-back plug-cum-adapter had no fuse.
So if ring topography was used, given that un fused plugs could well be in use, what fuse rating was recommended in the CU?
On Jun 1, 10:52=A0pm, H. Neary wrote= :
There were also 2A sockets which could be 2- or 3-pin.
My recollection from the few installations I met in my school & student days was that everything was individually wired back to the main fusebox, which could be quite a large panel, though in a big house there might be a sub-box on each floor. But it was unusual to have more than one light or power socket per room. I even heard recently of houses that only had electricity downstairs, while upstairs lighting (if any) was still gas.
I think ring mains came in along with 13A plugs.
IIRC, all Wylex plugs were fused. The largest was 15A, some coming with the ability to piggyback a smaller one on top. The pins were the same spacing, but narrower for lower currents so you could put a 5A plug in a 15A socket, but not vice versa.
Chris
rote:
2&3 pin 2, 5 and 15A circuits were all radial. The current 13A plug and ring circuits were a new concept in the 40s/50s that came along together. There were a couple of other types of plug used on rings at the same time, but they're all gone now.The round pin system did also include widespread use of BC plugs, enabling an iron to be plugged into a light socket upstairs, and a few other little used oddities.
If you go back further to before the takeover by 2/5/15A round pins, a wide array of things were in use, usually in various geographic pockets around the country.
NT
On Jun 2, 10:02=A0am, H. Neary wrote= :
Yes, turn of the century type setup. It was done because due to lack of adequate metering, lights were charged per light socket, and power per power socket, and the rates were different to reflect differing use patterns.
Must have been a hell of a thick wall for them to ever notice :)
NT
You could even buy an adaptor IIRC. Fuses must have been going all over the place.
Even a 750w iron is 3A on a 5A circuit. Wire fuses tolerate overloads for a while.
NT
Remember the "Fitall" plug? Two or thee pin depending on whether you screwed the earth pin into place, and a choice of 5A, 13A or 15A configurations. The internal fuse was almost impossible to access without dismantling the whole thing.
No 'almost' about it. The only way to get at the fuse is to remove the baseplate (four, slotted woodscrews)and the slider then lift out the brass plate with all the live-side pins and remove the fuse from underneath. I've got one here - I keep it just in case I end up buying a house which still has round-pin wiring but mostly because I'm too sentimental to throw it away.
Nick
I've still got one somewhere, but don't remember the fuse being difficult. I expect there was more than one model, though.
One wonders what reference he was comparing them to, the speaking clock perhaps? And whatever it was, why he assumed the BBC ones were incorrect?
I had a Fitall plug on my soldering iron when I started work in 1971 but like Bob I don't remember the fuse as you described it. There are some pictures on the Web, but none that I can find that show the inside in detail. Perhaps when you have time you could rectify that? After all, it's an istoric hicon ;-)
How old?
I have seen and rewired houses that had only 4 sockets. One in the kitchen, one in the hall,one in the landing and one in the lounge. They were all 15A radials to their own fuse and almost certainly earlier had unfused 15A round pin sockets fitted. These installs were probably pre WWII.
My parents house, built in 1946/7, had single 15 Amp sockets in the front room, back room & kitchen.
Upstairs, there was a single 15 Amp socket in the centre of the landing
- I suspect it was there so a vacuum cleaner (if you had such a trendy gadget) could reach into each bedroom.
If you wanted luxury items, like a bedside lamp, it was powered from an adapter plugged into the single overhead light socket & cables draped across the room to wherever. As time went on, the daisy-chain of adapters dangling from the central light fitting threatened to bring the ceiling down.
Here you go:
Anybody is welcome to use these if they like.
Any other views shot by request while I've got the tripod out.
Now: can anybody work out how to put the bloomin' thing back together again?
Nick
I recall having one of those on something. As I recall, it wasn't all that good, being a bit uncertain in connection.
Thanks Nick, that has stirred the old grey matter. I remember having to completely remove the terminal screws and carefully form the wire around the screw, and yes, the fuse was axial, now I remember. I hope I used a 3A fuse and not the supplied one, and I know I would have left the earth of my soldering iron disconnected, much safer when you were dealing with live chassis TV.
Thanks again for your trouble.
Surely a big improvement over the old 2 pin 5A Clixes though.
NT
Angle grinder, probably.
The Fitall was so bulky that it was very often impossible to use in a socket fitted, as they so often were, low down on a skirting board.
They were no good for those of us with 10A "Heating" sockets ;-) Actually I've never used 10A ones, but have seen them in shops. Hence the three gauges of fuse wire on a card - Lighting, Heating and Power (5, 10 and 15A).
The GPO had strict instructions on the use of those "plugs" - no Fitall-fitted appliances had normally to draw more than 2A, nor were they to be used with anything which required an earth.
Long live matchsticks!
The only people in our road who had vehicles were the elderly couple next door who had a Ford Consul, & the bloke across the road who parked his lorry round the corner.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.