Y adaptor for 2 bulbs in celing pendant lampholder?

[Alex]

I have never understood how it is still permitted to have a lampholder like in the OP

way the lampholder is suspended depends on the grip of the actual screw-fittings on the bare wires.

If a moderately heavy lampshade is used then the whole thing seems to be asking for trouble.

Does the US have ceiling pendant lampholders as dodgy as this?

There is so much safety in electrical products these days that I just wonder how this sort of lampholder is not obliged to have a decent flex grip in it.

[David Hansen]

On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 18:08:47 GMT someone who may be Alex wrote this:-

properly.

And also the strain relief channels fitted to the rose and lamp holder. Older fittings may not have these and they may be worth replacing.

One should assess the maximum mass one may safely handle. There are tables about such things.

[Clive Mitchell]

In message , [e-mail] writes

Yeah, but velvet cushions and duvets have a high resistance value. (Unless soaked in urine.)

[Clive Mitchell]

In message , Alex writes

It's not just relying on the wire being clamped. When assembled correctly the wires are looped over strain relief hooks which remove a lot of the pull force.

Some excessive glass lampshades are just asking for trouble in any scenario.

No. ALL their wiring accessories are dodgy. :)

[Chris J Dixon]

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

[meow2222]

Perfect! With overload illusion thrown in. For safety you cant beat liquids boiling over onto those bare elements. And boiling off before meeting the earthed case, thus making the panful of boiling stuff live at some random proportion of mains voltage. Metal handles anyone? Mind you in fairness I dont think I ever boiled mine over, 500w just isnt enough power. Might work with milk though.

(Or a bowl heater, that adds a bit of mechanical instability into the equation.)

Apparently they still use those bare wire cooking rings in Japan, on

110v.

Seriously, I wonder just how safe a setup like this would be today if it were run off a CU with RCD or RCBO.

NT

[Clive Mitchell]

In message , John writes

Look! I just made my own and you can plug kettles and washing machines in too. I didn't know what to do with the green wire so I stuck it up the hole and it went bang so I pulled it out again. I don't think it's needed because everything works OK but the kettle makes me feel all tingly when I pick it up.

[dcbwhaley]

Lampholders are the only electrical accessories where access to live terminals without using tools is considered safe. Anybody know why?

[Clive Mitchell]

In message , dcbwhaley writes

It's just been Grandfathered through because it would have been too hard to change every single lampholder in the world to comply. The newer GU10 style lampholder is good though. It would be nice if they started phasing the older BC and ES holders out.

Here in the UK we can get safety lamp holders which only connect the power once the lamp is inserted and locked in position.

OK. Put your hand up if you ever stuck your finger in a lamp holder! :)

(Did it on a fairground ride when I was a kid! DC apparently.)

[Clive Mitchell]

In message , Chris J Dixon writes

EYE OPENER! Not half!!!!!! They only just "rediscovered" not long ago that passing electric current through blood would sterilise it by killing the bacteria and viruses without causing apparent damage to the blood. Subsequent experiments have been carried out involving in situ sterilisation of human blood by passing low DC currents through a human body. If claims are to be believed, it deactivated the AIDs virus giving "low T-cell counts" whatever they are.

I wonder where he discovered the soil sterilisation technique.

[Dave Liquorice]

Oh yeah. I took one of those and several similar electric fires to the dump when clearing out my fathers loft. Can you still get electric fires with exposed resistance wire wound around a ceramic former? Can't say I seen any recently, they all seem to be "ceramic", fan, convector or oil filled these days.

[Clive Mitchell]

In message , Dave Liquorice writes

Nah, you need to poke a key or screwdriver through a plastic grill to get a decent shock these days.

[Andrew Gabriel]

B22d (bayonet cap) lampholders are grandfathered and exempt from IP2X requirements because there are no recorded deaths from them (at least, not due to touching the live pins).

[Lobster]

Yeah, been there done that, aged about 7 or 8 I suppose. And it really makes me shudder to recall that after having got a reasonable belt from it, my immediate reaction was to fetch my little sister and get her to stick hers in there too. Ha ha ha. Got another belt - much worse - when my old man found out...

David

[Adrian C]

Well, as kids we all do silly things. Aged 10, with absolutely no sense at all, I puffed the garage's compressed air nozzle in the direction of my sister's ear. Thankfully I missed ;-)

-- Adrian C

[Owain]

It would be nice if the Continentals and Americans would at least phase their ES holders correctly, with N to ring and L to tip.

Owain

[Owain]

an *earthed* case?

through a lampholder adapter?

I only ever used wooden handled pans and plastic utensils with mine.

Not safe.

But don't let me stop you trying it if you really want to.

Owain

[Ioannis]

When I was around 14, I climbed up an AC 20kV square tower, one that has a

3-phase stepdown transformer, just to get hold of a 160W blended light lamp.

I got the lamp, but was later notified that I could have easily been killed being so close to the high voltage transformer, which occasionally closes airgaps using electric sparks, particularly on wet nights.

A really stupid thing to do :-(

[Guy King]

The message from Lobster contains these words:

I was about five and clearly remember pretending I'd stuck my finger with a drawing pin to explain the loud shout and sudden anguish. I can picture the lamp fitting now, conical spun metal with a gold finish and small star-shaped perforations round the end for ventilation, mounted on a bendy stalk. Very late 50s early 60s.

[Lobster]

So didn't you have a sister, then? ;-)

David