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Post by gray1720 on Sept 26, 2024 18:23:53 GMT
Interesting, maybe later, then. Thinking about it, when did rectangular rather than square pin plugs come in? The house I grew up in had round pin plugs, and I can't imagine it was anywhere that got sparks early.
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Post by don on Sept 26, 2024 18:31:42 GMT
I am amazed the amount of older people who use e-bikes. I see them wizzing along the pavement outside our house. More older people than kids in my experience. I think they are a nuisance personally but I’m a grumpy old man in a wheelchair Retirees were the early adopters down at the bike trails. All the fun of riding a bike but with minimal effort and days to recover. It’s the e-scooters that seem to be wizzing around on the pavements most e-cyclists use the road and wouldn’t use them on pavement |
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Post by peterba on Sept 26, 2024 19:19:35 GMT
Thinking about it, when did rectangular rather than square pin plugs come in?
IIRC, the process of changing over was first started in the early 1950s.
However, I remember some of the houses in which we lived, during the early 1960s, still had round-pin  ... but generally, the changeover was well underway by then. |
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Post by daves on Sept 26, 2024 19:37:12 GMT
I remember the switch over from 15A round pin to 13A square pin. In fact, when I started at my technician job in 1985 the school still had a mix of round and square pin sockets, adapters were worth their weight in gold, if you had one you held on to it like grim death. In fact, I think some of the wiring was still lead sheathed 😱, until we did a massive rewiring over 3 summer holidays.
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Post by gray1720 on Sept 26, 2024 20:31:01 GMT
Thinking about it, when did rectangular rather than square pin plugs come in?
IIRC, the process of changing over was first started in the early 1950s.
However, I remember some of the houses in which we lived, during the early 1960s, still had round-pin ... but generally, the changeover was well underway by then. I'm glad you knew I meant round pin! My parents house had those into the 1980s, how it didn't get burnt to the ground I'll never know. |
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Post by peterob on Sept 26, 2024 20:45:36 GMT
Thinking about it, when did rectangular rather than square pin plugs come in?
IIRC, the process of changing over was first started in the early 1950s.
However, I remember some of the houses in which we lived, during the early 1960s, still had round-pin ... but generally, the changeover was well underway by then. I can remember [brown] round pin plugs. Associated with my grandfather particularly. Also remember that sometimes he took power from the lighting circuit with an adaptor that went into the ceiling light fitting. I'd say this was early 60's. I can only remember snatches from before 1961 when we moved South to Watford and I started primary school. |
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Post by geoffr on Sept 26, 2024 20:47:19 GMT
IIRC, the process of changing over was first started in the early 1950s.
However, I remember some of the houses in which we lived, during the early 1960s, still had round-pin ... but generally, the changeover was well underway by then. I can remember [brown] round pin plugs. Associated with my grandfather particularly. Also remember that sometimes he took power from the lighting circuit with an adaptor that went into the ceiling light fitting. I'd say this was early 60's. I can only remember snatches from before 1961 when we moved South to Watford and I started primary school. Round pin plugs are still used for professional lighting in theatres etc. |
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Post by gray1720 on Sept 27, 2024 6:05:15 GMT
IIRC, the process of changing over was first started in the early 1950s.
However, I remember some of the houses in which we lived, during the early 1960s, still had round-pin ... but generally, the changeover was well underway by then. I can remember [brown] round pin plugs. Associated with my grandfather particularly. Also remember that sometimes he took power from the lighting circuit with an adaptor that went into the ceiling light fitting. I'd say this was early 60's. I can only remember snatches from before 1961 when we moved South to Watford and I started primary school. We found one of those adaptors when we moved in here, in the light fitting in the outside loo. I suspect it dated to before a pair of sockets were installed there. I've kept it as a curiosity. I remember seeing them in my youth, but I don't recall ever seeing them being used. I do vaguely recall smaller round pin plugs in the house as well, maybe 5 amp ones (had to wire a plug for a Cub badge) but, again, not the context. |
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Post by kate on Sept 27, 2024 7:39:29 GMT
I expect it was a round pin one my older brother told me to pull out of the socket in the kitchen. Can't remember the reason (I know I wasn;t his favourite person), but in my innocence, since it was stiff, I curled my fingers round the edges to pull it out.
Picked myself off the opposite wall well shocked. Told not to tell the parents - and I didn't. Probably when I got curly hair. Ha!
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Post by gray1720 on Sept 27, 2024 7:58:22 GMT
I expect it was a round pin one my older brother told me to pull out of the socket in the kitchen. Can't remember the reason (I know I wasn;t his favourite person), but in my innocence, since it was stiff, I curled my fingers round the edges to pull it out. Picked myself off the opposite wall well shocked. Told not to tell the parents - and I didn't. Probably when I got curly hair. Ha! It could have been a lot worse! Apparently the sparky my gran always used was found dead one day on the opposite side of the kitchen to the washing machine he was supposed to be fixing. |
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Post by spinno on Sept 27, 2024 8:17:47 GMT
One Christmas eve I was changing the bathroom extractor fan in the loft...old one taken ok, new one in same housing (same model) wired in as per instructions. Climbed down to turn everything back on...nothing, zilch, nada, all other lights etc working ok.
I forgot I had the screwdriver in hand when I wiggled the fan.
At least it worked, and so did I after I'd picked myself up off the old water tank staging...
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Post by gray1720 on Sept 27, 2024 8:38:13 GMT
That reminds me of the bathroom light saga... Would it turn on? Would it feck! Tried three different bulbs - nothing. Took it apart and put it back together a dozen times. In the end we bought another bulb from the co-op - and it worked! Dodgy batch of bulbs in Wickes because, of course, I returned the first one when we borrowed a bulb from a friend and found that it worked. It's the only fitting in the house with a large Edison thread, so we didn't have another bulb to test with. Major frustration.
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Post by dorsetmike on Sept 27, 2024 12:30:08 GMT
I recall back in the mid 1950s in lodgings in Market Drayton that still had DC, and a few years before that visiting grandparents in Maidstone who had no electricity, only Gas for cooking and lighting, battery radio with a lead acid rechargeable battery which had to be taken to a local ironmongers for recharging.
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Post by Chester PB on Sept 27, 2024 15:25:02 GMT
Another point about the possible heating-up problem: a high resistance due to a poor contact. A few tears ago, whilst our oil-fired heating system was out of use whilst awaiting a spare part, my wife plugged in an old 2 kilowatt convector heater we keep for such emergencies.
[bold highlight] Surely it wasn't THAT upsetting, Chester?   The tears came later when we saw how much it had cost to heat the living room (and upstairs too because the stairs are open) for four days using only the convector heater, and a small fan heater blowing through the open door of the bathroom when my wife had a bath. |
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... but generally, the changeover was well underway by then.
