Picture(s) of the day....

[CitroJim]

As I shall be retired for 20 years this year I thought you might like to take a look at some of my stock to make sure I am keeping up to date.

Love them Peter Do you know there's a Facebook group devoted to such vintage items

[Peter.N.]

No I didn't Jim, will have a look.

Peter

[CitroJim]

No I didn't Jim, will have a look.

Peter

There's a Facebook Group for every conceivable subject nowadays Peter, you name it and a search will find it... Even one to celebrate Corrugated Iron!

I think the one for your stuff is called 'Vintage Mains Plugs and Other Electrical Curiosities'

Some really interesting stuff appears in it

I'm a member of many interesting Facebook Groups

[Peter.N.]

I belong to the C5 forum, vintage radio and the 406 one. I'm wishing I still had one, a lot more reliable than the C5.

Peter

[CitroJim]

I find vintage radios quite reliable too Peter

I must admit, reading this forum makes me pleased and relieved I don't get involved with modern cars...

[CitroJim]

Seen during my run today...

Good morning little robot! It's warm, wet and windy out there so take care whilst delivering all your goodies to those in need

[Gibbo2286]

That bayonet fitting plug I remember well, mom had her electric iron with one of those plugged into the light socket hanging from the ceiling.

[mickthemaverick]

That bayonet fitting plug I remember well, mom had her electric iron with one of those plugged into the light socket hanging from the ceiling.

We only had 2 x 15A 3 pin sockets in the entire house, 1 each in the front and back downstairs rooms. Hence as we began to get the odd electrical appliance they were invariably fitted with the bayonet plug for use upstairs or in the kitchen.

That situation remained until 1973 when I bought the house off my parents, who had inherited a bungalow less than a mile away, and my first job was a full house rewire fitting two double 13A outlets in every room and 3 in the kitchen would you believe? Positive luxury which stayed that way until we built the ground floor extension and took advantage of the need to replace the consumer unit and upgraded to a 3 ring main system keeping the extension on its own ring. Cooker and shower feeds were installed at the same time although we never used the cooker one with the ex preferring gas for cooking.

Even then as things moved on I found the occasional need for a 3 way adapter to power extra kit, like train set transformers and Christmas lights!!

[CitroJim]

Despite my age I only vaguely remember 15A, 5A and 2A sockets at home. I know for sure from the mid-60s we had loads of 13A sockets.

However, I saw loads and loads still in use in the early 70 during my radio and TV servicing career. Radios on 2 pin bayonets were quite often seen and with many having a 'live' chassis we needed to take care!

Back in the workshop a comprehensive adaptor board on each servicing bay was essential! Out on the road our soldering irons were fitted with multi-plugs what could plug into virtually anything...

Happy days

[myglaren]

I do remember 15A and 5A sockets before my dad rewired the house, that had only been wired before they bought it. Can't recall any 2A sockets though.
It had belonged to a local electrical contractor/shop owner and the electrician who wired it up lived over the road. There were still gas mantles scattered around but disabled.
There was an adapter in the attic for the bayonet plugs but also 15A sockets.
My friend's mother used one in their kitchen light to plug her iron into.
Her brother in law, who lived next door to her, was an electrician.

[Peter.N.]

2 amp sockets were mostly for electric clocks. Our house built in 1937 had had several sockets, all round pin of course, but the one I remember most was in my bedroom - a 10 amp 2 pin. Never seen another one. It was also wired with VIR (rubber) cable) which the insulation was falling off by the '50s

My grandparents house in Bromley a Victorian type terrace but built in the early 1900s had an underground supply and gas but only two power points in the whole house, a 2 pin 5 amp in the kitchen and a larger one upstairs. There was a flex running all round the picture rail to the radio in the dining room. I believe it also had an immersion heater for the water as an alternative to the downstairs fireback boiler. I think they may have bought the house new. They were in their '60s when I first remember them, born in the 1880s, very interesting to talk to.

Just after the war they built an estate in the lovely woods just below us, destroyed a whole area of Rhododendrons - still I suppose people had to live somewhere. That was the first time a met 13 amp plugs, but they weren't like the ones we have now, they had round pins and the live one screwed in and was the fuse - and they were quite expensive..

People were still using BC adaptors when I started work in the '50s, there were also 2 way ones with a pull cord switch so you could turn the light off. There were still quite a few people using 600w bowl fires plugged into the light and also irons of course. Many of the houses at Beamish have rooms that looked just like my grandparents house.

Peter

[Peter.N.]

I remember the days of having to carry an assortment of plugs with you Jim and a 'universal' plug on your soldering iron. There was one particular house deep in the country near Axminster which I remember well as it had a long narrow drive with stone walls on both sides - I broke my door mirror on one. They had a 5 amp 3 pin round plug which I had to change if I had to take the TV in, then change again when I brought it back! Strangely the house appeared on 'Escape to the country' a little while back - I particularly remembered the drive - there was no room to turn round you had to reverse all the way out!

Peter

[myglaren]

Perhaps we did have a 2A socket then as we had an electric clock above the dining room fireplace with a two pin socket.

[CitroJim]

Wow! Magic Loving this amble down a great electrical memory lane Peter and Steve

I seem to recall plugs being considered quite valuable in the early 70s judging by how many tellies and radios came into the workshop with the plug missing... On the servicing bays we had a 'Safebloc' for such occurrences...

Thinking on, maybe it was because of the general shortage of sockets in the average house in those days that several appliances may have shared a plug. I was guilty of such a crime on many occasions and until recently I had a stereo amp and tuner sharing one 13A plug...

So, on that basis, no way could the telly go in for repair with its plug still attached. It was needed for something else!

I know I got very good at wiring plugs and remember being taught how - as if I needed it - at school during a physics lesson...

Like a lot of things these days, a lost art and hardly ever needed now although I still do on my vintage stuff for which I have a good stash of genuine NOS MK plugs...

[myglaren]

On the servicing bays we had a 'Safebloc' for such occurrences...

Were those anything like Wago connectors?
In an interview with someone at the Wago HQ in the UK he mentioned that they had been making screwless connectors for decades, since the fifties IIRC.
I have only known about them for about six months.