old lighting systems/power

[systemtek]

Can anyone supply me with any links to web pages or info on the following. Years ago....it used to be the fact that people powered devices from lamp/light holders what was this system called can anyone remember it ?, not been a sparky meself i know of it but no details, my dad was asking he can remember it from when he was young and was asking me about it.

Im sure someone has some pics or links maybe to help him remember hehe

thanks

merry christmas

 

[bernardgreen]

Can anyone supply me with any links to web pages or info on the following. Years ago....it used to be the fact that people powered devices from lamp/light holders what was this system called can anyone remember it ?, not been a sparky meself i know of it but no details, my dad was asking he can remember it from when he was young and was asking me about it.

Im sure someone has some pics or links maybe to help him remember hehe

thanks

merry christmas

what was this system called

DANGEROUS

can anyone remember it ?

YES

I will dig out and photograph a bayonet adaptor which replaces the bulb with a switched socket ( pull cord ) for the bulb and and an un-switched socket for an iron or electric fire or similar.

Ceiling roses torn out of lath and plaster were a common problem.

 

[JohnD]

It was done right into the 1950's

People seldom had many sockets in their houses and it was quite an expensive job to add an extra one (until the introduction of the brilliant British Ring). There were various round-pin sockets installed to take different currents. Not all of them were earthed. With a certain amount of luck the size of socket would correspond to the rating of fuse, and the cable between them.

Houses were originally wired for electric light (to substitute for the familiar gas lights, starting in the 1920's) as no-one at that time had any electrical appliances.

Also ignorance about safe electrical practice was even more widespread than today.

You will sometimes see, in old black and white films, people using a small electric iron plugged into a lamp pendant. I can remember seeing at least one old murder thriller where all the lights went out in a boarding house from this, and the hero "mended the fuse" by twisting the remaining scraps of fusewire together.

As well as the overload, there was generally no earth in this arrangement, but the practice was considered quite normal and acceptable.

 

[systemtek]

True, my dad was telling me that when he was young he can remember his mum getting thrown off a chair when "plugging something in the light". In the house we still have the remains of the old gas lamp feeds that used to be on the wall and are cut of under the floor....

 

[JohnD]

RFLighting recently posted this from a 1955 meter card