I was having a similar chat in the pub a while back with a couple of old musos (one surprisingly well known).
"I wonder that more of us didn't get killed on stage, what with all the dodgy wiring"
'Evolution in action. All the weak ones had been killed off by the crappy old vans we used to drive to the gigs in'
Having driven some of those vans, I see his point.
Did that ever work? Whenever I tried it, I just got deafening mains hum. So I used the radiator pipework instead.
I'm still usin' one. Wot's the problem ?
john
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Derek ^ saying something like:
Hah....
We only laugh because it's true.
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember sponix saying something like:
I'm utterly certain I've seen them knocking around as NOS in a local farmers' store.
I think those ones were a relatively modern attempt to make plug fitting easier for idiots. They never caught on of course. ISTVR using one once.
The Nettles with the hole to see the fuse were common in the 80s, and not sure but I think 70s too, and there are still lots in use.
MK plugs with a hole by the earth pin were common for a very long time, and I dont recall any genuinely satisfactory explanation for that extra hole.
Its hard to find 13A plugs that are really out there, but in the
2A/5A/15A family there are some godawful creations. Wooden mains plugs that change dimensions with RH and burn well are positively reassuring compared to a 2 way 5A adaptor I once had. The metal tubes in this came right to the surface, so just touching the adaptor with hands would fry the user.NT
The design of the 5 A round-pin plugs I bought recently for centrally-switched table lamps in my living room does not appear to have changed in the last 30+ years; they have unsleeved pins and still that mysterious hole at the top by the earth pin...
Been illegal to sell them for some years now, along with all the other various weird and wonderful combinations of adaptor which do not comply with the relevant BS.
They, and many of the other innovative products described in this thread, all became unavailable when it became illegal to sell electrical products which don't conform to BS. I presume there is no BS (or EN nowadays) for B22d plugs.
Indeed.
I think that appliances and wiring were dodgier yesteryear, but we all had a lot less appliances then, so some reduction of risk based on quantity.
I'd like to think people were in possession of more common sense then too, but it's a bit self-selecting in that the people who put bar fires[1] on the edge of the bath aren't here to tell us about it.
Tim
[1] They did too - my Dad was called as an expert witness in a coroner's court concerning exactly this.
Yes, the current version of BS 546 is still the 1950 edition. This must be one of the oldest standards still in force.
businesses as it simplifies the
In my experience these fashion items are dangerous. The transparent plastic is different than the normal stuff. It gets brittle with age and the first point of failure is the boss holding the main screw which keeps the two halves together. That one would have damaged my 9 year old but for the fact that he always switches off at the socket before unplugging - something I now force myself to do having seen what can happen
There wasn't one.
Exactly so. 2-pin plugs with conventional screw terminals used the same arrangement.
Another was the ease with which stray strands of wire could wander and cause a short between the pins. The Clix plug I have in front of me at the moment has the splat marks to prove it.
Per house, or per installed device ?
I suspect that if we had yesterday's standards with todays number of gagets, we wouldn't have many houses left.
I still use this setup for (antistatic) earthing PCs that don't have a real power switch if I forget to borrow the proper kit from work. But I make very sure the earth lead's not going anywhere.
It was once possible to buy replacement coiled elements for radiant fires. You simply removed the failed one, used a piece of string to get the length and stretched the new one to suit. My dad told me that in his college days (1930s) they heated a room by suspending such an element from the mantelpiece.
Mind you, his mains electric soil sterilisation kit was a bit of an eye opener - wooden box, metal plate at each end, fill with soil, add water until ammeter reaches desired level, leave to simmer. I can smell it now.
Chris
Then there was an electronics lab in which one of the less practical design engineers was working. On enquiring if there were any spare 13A plugs for his soldering iron, he was pointed towards the SafeBloc. Some time later it was noticed that the SafeBloc was still on the bench, but it no longer had its plug!
Chris
Last one I installed was in 1992. It was suppllied with a packet of nichrome hairpins, to tie it into the firebrick plates.
You can still buy these things of course, but now you need to go to a kiln maker.
round pin plugs & it rang the vaguest of bells as I remember my Dad having one. Just found it - pics here :
"Fitall plug"
I like the last photo with all the pins deployed - looks a bit Irish to me (apols)
John
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