It is the former ('twisted' stuff from Woolworths etc.) that I recall being used, and was talking about (most commonly transparent/ translucent/ colourless) - and I'm sure that I still have plenty lying around somewhere!
Kind Regards, John.
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Kind Regards, John.
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It sounds like the same thing I know, we used to buy it as a 50m drum from woolworths (with a deposit on the drum!) and used it for loudspeakers and other general low voltage things, we had it in various colours; red, green and blue spring to mind. As mentioned before there should be an amount of it in the old suitcase if I can ever get to it again complete with 2A2P plugs and sockets.
I wonder what youy mean by "low voltage"
Yes, it was used for speakers and all sorts of 'ELV' things, but the recollections I've been describing relate to it's use for what electricians would today call 'Low Voltage' - which, in those days, in this context, was nominally 240V !
Kind Regards, John
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Indeed - in fact, again, I'd be surprised if I haven't still got some of those lights hiding away in some dusty corner - with that 'twisted transparent cable' (probably with a 2-pin plug, or even a B22 lampholder 'plug' on the end
).However, yet again, in terms of the "in perspective" business, I strongly suspect that there were extremely few problems/issues, let alone catastrophes or tragedies, as a result of such practices - in those days long before 'Nanny' had been born!
Kind Regards, John
What I call 'bell wire' is solid core and the modern stuff is figure of eight, twin and white. Not seen it for a while, but you used to be able to also get a mains flex which looked similar, but was flexible.
When I moved into my house, I found the lighting circuit had a rubber figure of eight - the neutral black, the earth was black with a green stripe (all was in a good condition).
The live was a separate red PVC cable.
The electrician's rewiring said they had seen a few like this in my area!
The live was a separate red PVC cable.
The electrician's rewiring said they had seen a few like this in my area!
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You should perhaps consider yourself lucky that there was an 'earth', no matter what colour
Kind Regards, John
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Reminds me of the time I found an alarm panel in a house in the grounds of a Synagogue.
The 230 feed to the spur for the panel was fed off a socket below in 6 core alarm cable, of which only two cores were used.
Oddly, they were green and yellow....
The 230 feed to the spur for the panel was fed off a socket below in 6 core alarm cable, of which only two cores were used.
Oddly, they were green and yellow....
As I said, although that has us all 'throwing up our hands in horror', I wouldn't mind betting that it never resulted in any problems!
Kind Regards, John
Apparently this customer is also getting electrocuted in a bedroom.As said before it is a number of tens of decades since I'd seen one of these 'screw top' 5A plugs:
View attachment 250299
Monday I attended a fault reported as 'Everytime I touch the computer I get electrocuted'.
I found an extension lead plugged into the adjacent room:
View attachment 250300
At least someone had thoughtfully marked the positive and negative pins
View attachment 250301
And the wiring side of it:
View attachment 250302At least the 'cable grip' had been used but not big enough for 2 lots of insulation
The annoying thing it the 5A switched socket is on the elderly 3/0.029" lighting circuit but the surface mounted ring circuit is brown/blue T&E in trunking. Adding a couple of DSSO's into the ring was exceptionally easy from the trunking the other side of the wall as the hole was already there, presumably from a previous pipe.
Found: Unsleeved 13A plug, twin flex, metal clad 13A socket, more twin flex through the wall of a cupboard for a light.
Doesn't show in pic but the flex has chaffed against unprotected edge.
I wasn't on this job.
Sorry for the bump; doing a bit of clearing/sorting and came across one of our old public address system loudspeaker cables with 2A plug & socket
This I what was sold by Woolworths as bell wire
That photo of a 2 pin plug brings back memories of my first attempt to see exactly what electricity was. I crawled behind a sofa (I was too young to walk), and carefully inserted one end of a piece of bare wire into one side of a two-pin socket. Nothing happened so I inserted the other end of the wire into the other side of the socket. A loud bang and a bright flash were the instant results followed by panicking parents quickly picking me up to first make sure I was not hurt then to spank me for being naughty.
For me, it was a similar plug, plugged into a 15amp to 5amp adaptor - my father was extending the Christmas tree lights with a piece of twisted cotton-covered, with a twisted wire joint - LIVE at the time. I was instructed to hold the wires carefully apart, whilst he went to find the rubberised cotton tape, which was common in those days. I was curious, as to what might happen if they did touch, who could resist? Bang, it blew the 15amp wire fuse.
I wired up an 'extension' of sorts from my brothers' bedroom because my bedroom was a box room and didn't have a socket in there.
Plug and 13A fuse, connected to a rubber outlet ,that was designed to be fitted in a hole in the skirting board. I simply wired it up with two long lengths of stranded single core dad had lying around in his shed. I then used two long wood screws to screw it to the face of the skirting board, with the leads pushed down the edge of the carpet, run under the door on the hinge side, along the landing, (again, just stuffed down the edge of the carpet), under my brothers door and plugged into a double socket he had behind the door. Used it to listen to radio Luxemburg of a night when in bed. One day mum was vacuuming the hall carpet and it sucked the cables out from the edge of the carpet and she nearly tripped over them. Screamed at me to get shut of them before someone broke their neck tripping over them. That meant no more radio for me, so in temper I picked up a pair of scissors in my bedroom and simply cut through the cables. Yep, a big flash and bang, I was thrown backwards against my bed and mum simply said, "What the hell have you done? My Hoovers stopped!"
Well, what I hadn't done was to unplug the damned thing before cutting the cables! I was not allowed to 'play' with electrics after that until I had started work as an armature winder apprentice a few years later.
No MCB's/RCD in them days, just 30A rewirable fuses.
Plug and 13A fuse, connected to a rubber outlet ,that was designed to be fitted in a hole in the skirting board. I simply wired it up with two long lengths of stranded single core dad had lying around in his shed. I then used two long wood screws to screw it to the face of the skirting board, with the leads pushed down the edge of the carpet, run under the door on the hinge side, along the landing, (again, just stuffed down the edge of the carpet), under my brothers door and plugged into a double socket he had behind the door. Used it to listen to radio Luxemburg of a night when in bed. One day mum was vacuuming the hall carpet and it sucked the cables out from the edge of the carpet and she nearly tripped over them. Screamed at me to get shut of them before someone broke their neck tripping over them. That meant no more radio for me, so in temper I picked up a pair of scissors in my bedroom and simply cut through the cables. Yep, a big flash and bang, I was thrown backwards against my bed and mum simply said, "What the hell have you done? My Hoovers stopped!"
Well, what I hadn't done was to unplug the damned thing before cutting the cables! I was not allowed to 'play' with electrics after that until I had started work as an armature winder apprentice a few years later.
No MCB's/RCD in them days, just 30A rewirable fuses.
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