13 amp plugs - memories

[john]

Rummaging through my electrical stuff and realised I could throw away the many 13 amp plugs I had removed from defunct appliances over the years. I recalled the excitement of years ago of getting home with a new appliance and a brand new MK Plug and taking care and pride in fitting the plug really carefully. Now of course everything comes with a fitted plug.

Does anyone recall the plugs made by "Nettle" - they used to have a window in them so that you could see the colour of the fuse. I always thought it was a good idea.

[Grumpy owd man]

I can better that [I think]. In our museum of the odd and outright dangerous [stuff we have brought in off jobs or condemned] we have An original sleeved MK Plug complete with ivory plastic spring loaded retractable live and neutral pin sleeves. AND an MK plug with a bult in switch. Also we have a very nice earth joint on an old lead sheathed cable where the 'jubilee clip' {nice...!} was a bit too big so the 'installer' had taken up the 'slack' with a wooden clothes peg! "Death wish fuses" where the fuse wire was designed to be routed along the outside of the carrier. A 3036 100A fuse complete with a pre-fluxed brazing rod for a fuse-wire. 3/.029 [no earth conductor] that had been attached to a wall by the use of nails being knocked through the 'centre' of it. A 'T' jointed Pyro without glands, pots or seals [didn't even break the conductors!!! still don't know how he did it]...and many many more. Must go now as it's time for my medication!!!

[Stuart]

I dont know about Nettle plugs but I'm sure I've bought appliances recently that obvioulsy had the fuse in a removeable holder as the plug was fitted but also have the window you speak of so you can see the fuse rating ..

Stuart

Shift THELEVER to reply.

[Mark Carver]

[snip]

Indeed my parents still have a couple of appliances with those very plugs fitted.

[Mike Harrison]

You can now buy plugs with completely transparent backs - useful for businesses as it simplifies the regular inspections they have to do.

[sponix]

Anyone got a pic?

sponix

[Mike Harrison]

Yes -

[john]

thought it

I fitted a MK plug with switch to a 2 bar electric fire. Seemed a good idea! ]

John

[john]

clearly didn't realise that only the end half actually makes contact so the present design is fine. Perhaps it used to be different though. Any ideas about the design philosophy of the sleeves in the photo?

John

[chris French]

Really, surely they are supposed to check the security of the cables/tigthness of screws as well.

[Harry Bloomfield]

john was thinking very hard :

I have somewhere in my 'museum' a weird and wonderful adaptor plug which required no tools to fit to the cable, other than a means to strip the cable. The wires connected by a spring clip arrangement and once fitted (the really clever part) it could be plugged into a 5amp,

15amp or 13amp socket with or without earth pin. You just selected the particular pin type you needed and locked them in to place.

The one with an opening as you looked at it from the pins side.

[Blueyonder]

I remember the ones with the switch - poplular in the 70s. They had a neon built-in too, so you could see they were live, even of the appliance itself was turned off.

-- JJ

[Blueyonder]

Even though contact is only made at the end, it did add both strength to the entire length, and meant the pin didn't have any narrow (and so lower resistance) points to it. That resistance thing was a moot point though, as the connection to the fuse is often the point of lowest resistance anyway, so it tends to be the live pin that gets hot when supplying 13 amps.

I expect the main reason for that design is that there was not the variety of plastics around then as there are now, so it was more difficult to make sleeve on the pins that did not conduct electricty, was not too thick and was not too brittle. That's my guess, at least.

-- JJ

[John Rumm]

Don't think I have ever seen one of those... but presumably they would still be preferable to the many unsleaved plugs still in circulation.

[John Rumm]

highest even ;-)

[sponix]

sponix

[sponix]

Dunno whether that was true with the original sockets though.

sponix

[sponix]

I have/had one of those somewhere!

sponix

[sponix]

Thought: No I didn't.

What I had was a mains plug that could be fitted without tools.

It had a primitive wirestripper in the base and the two halves were held together with a 1/4 turn 'screw' that it could be ondone with a coin. The top half was a sliding fit on the bottom half.

The wires were connected via metal 'clips' and the strain relief was a self adjusting plastic affair.

If I find it I'll post some pics.

sponix

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've got one. Would you like some pics?