My New Bedtime Read: ASEE Guide To The 11th Edition (July 1939)

[Astra99]

When I was a boy back in the 1950s, our part of town was supplied at 210V, but the adjacent area was supplied at 240V. We were supplied with new lamps, new electric fire elements and other bits and pieces when our area was upgraded to 240V. Decades later, I noticed in the plant room where I worked (in the next city) the switchgear was still marked 365/210V even though the actual supply was 415/240V

 

[RF Lighting]

With regard to the voltage, I found this in my book:

 

[securespark]

Cool.

I'd like to get some more earlier regs, but sensibly priced ones are thin on the ground.

The first regs are interesting.

 

[securespark]

I have posted these elsewhere in the forum, but as part of my divorce with Photobucket, I want to move them away before they disappear completely.

Here is the first edition of the wiring regulations, 1882. Not BS, Not IEE but STEE.

 

[securespark]

For fun, see how much you can recognise from the current regs.

 

[JohnW2]

For fun, see how much you can recognise from the current regs.

Thanks - very interesting!

I suppose we shouldn't be surprised but, although that document is obviously devoid of any explicit detailed requirements, nearly all of the concepts it talks about are as true today as they were nearly 140 years ago. For example, we obviously now have numerical criteria for determining required cable CSA, but they didn't have too bad a rule of thumb back then when they said that if a cable became 'perceptibly warmed by ordinary current' it was undersized, and should be upgraded. In fact, that was probably a lot more cautious/conservative than current regs, which see to assume that conductor temp at deign current may be as high as 70C (i.e. a lot more than 'perceptibly warmed'!).

It's also interesting that, even then, emphasis was put on the need for 'testing', particularly in relation to what would now usually be described ad 'continuity' and IR.

Of course, in comparison with subsequent (and current) regulations, that document was (per its title) essentially almost all about reduction of fire risks, with 'direct (electrical) risks to persons' being almost an afterthought at the very end.

Kind Regards, John