I feel sure some of the older members of the group will know this one. Do you remember as a kid that one could get a double adapter that fit in a lampholder thus allowing you to run the radio off it as well as a light. Can one still get these things and if so where.
Possibly your best bet is a junk basket at a car boot sale. I remember there being two versions, one with two bc outlets and one with a bc outlet and a five amp two pin outlet. This was in the days when earth wires were for sissies
please see the recent thread (around
I remember in addition:
o two-way BC with unswitched straight down (or up) and the other switched at about 45 degrees o three-way BC unswitched - straight + 45 degrees either side
IIRC there were variations on the switching - sometimes a slide switch and sometimes a cord pull
And why worry about earth when they made it so easy to have an unswitched socket unoccupied and right by the switch for the lamp so when feeling for the switch in the dark you learned that electricity can do more than make the tongue tingle? (Mind you, we might have proportionately more children interested in physics if we still had sockets like that. Proportionately as it might be by dint of having fewer children *not* able to learn the lesson.)
They vanished from the market sometime around 1970. This was due to a piece of legislation which required electrical accessories to conform to relevant British Standards (not sure which Act it was). The British Standards did not include all these fancy variations on things like basic lampholders. Some of these probably could have been included -- it would have been up to their manufacturers to do the technical work and lobby for their inclusion, which they apparently did not think was worth the effort.
Some of them can be found in other countries which use B22d (BC) lampholders, such as Hong Kong, China. I did see a BC plug in a shop a few years ago. I use an old one of those to plug in some Christmas decorations in my parents' house, so I bought it as a spare. It was sold illegally, because it doesn't conform to the BS for BC lampholders. It came from China, and wasn't made to anything like the same quality as the old one currently in use.
I looked all over for same about 6 months ago - I was assured by the shops I tried that they were no longer available.
(I'm not surprised, as never mind the radio, you could also run the electric fire off them!!)
I concur with your logic! I came across one recently when doing a sort-out, I used it to power my photographic enlarger and the safe-light in the pantry (our posh name for utility cupboard under the stairs). We call the equivalent room in our current house the larder, is that more or less pretentious I wonder?
You often see irons run off bayonet adapters in films of a particular vintage
I had a look for one of those a few months back. Could not find one in the usual outlets. Perhaps it's possible to buy them online or at a large electrical outlet?
Since these new low energy bulbs are so dim I had the brainwave of using one of those adaptors so two such bulbs could be run from a single light socket.
If you didn't see the DIY one in another thread...
Neat idea, sort of? 9 bulbs may be slightly over the top though.
On Sat, 12 Jan 2008 18:01:32 +0000 someone who may be judith wrote this:-
They are not available in shops.
I have a couple, which I occasionally use to frighten "safety" people.
'Seen 'em in films !" .... ding, dong" _I_ used em' real life!
[Just reminding myself that I must be ' ... of a particular vintage..' ! ]In article , Andrew Gabriel writes
(picking up on an old thread)
Came across this while looking for something else:
No BS is mentioned.
I hope these retaining pins really are not plastic. They certainly look like it.
They do don't they .It's an Australian site I see. Stuart
I guess one could always insert metal pins if they broke off. Not good tohugh.
NT
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