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Personal Museum/collections?

MHRestorations
Does anyone else on this site have their own 'personal collection' of antiquated electrical equipment that's in too good a condition to throw away, or may be unique?


I was caused to wonder this by the 'reuse' thread. We're starting a full rewire soon on a property which has a beautiful combined service head, main switch and fuseboard, all in one unit. I can't remember who made it, I want to say Callenders (later BICC). it's light cream coloured (almost the GPO 'light straw' if anyone's familiar) and with gilded lettering stating the purpose of each 'section' (Electricity supply, main switch and 'fuses').


I fully intend to keep at least the main switch and fusebox as functional (but clearly not actually used) items, and the service head if it turns out it can't be separated from the main switch easily, or if the DNO decide. I suspect it has rewireable fuses in, and possibly even a neutral fuse, although the meter dates to the 80s so that would likely be linked out.


In any case I'll be taking detailed photos of the installation as it is before we disturb it.


My colleague regards this as timewasting and would love to destroy the old gear in a blaze of RCBOs and 18th ed. compliant boards, but I bribe him with lunch to allow me to save such relics. I feel it's part of history?


Am I alone in this respect, and if not, how out of hand can it get?


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    My colleagues are trying to put me in there?



    ? oh dear burn!


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    I think I belong in one


    ?
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member

    burn:

    My colleagues are trying to put me in there?




     

    Well Burn, you can't rely on youthful good looks and boyish charm forever - eventually have to get good at something ?


    OMS
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    I am a fossil
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    I've been thown into the William Morris camp as well. If she finds it and cannot get a reasonablely sensible answer it goes in the bin. Gone are the days of collecting PILC, Pyro, Wavecon, plugs and sockets, test gear, et al.

    however, .... I found this squirreled away from her

    738c8b7d796a7ee709c7919fff0042de-huge-20191023_1743321.jpg


    Legh
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    Am I alone in this respect, and if not, how out of hand can it get?


    Badly..............................very badly


    Apart from the ongoing obsession with getting every Edition of the Regs, there's all the various "colours" and the paper amendments to collect. Then collecting every issue of the NICEIC Newsletters from issue 1 in Nov 1959 (now complete, thank goodness), Wiring Matters as well. 


    Test equipment, another collection of pre 1990 kit.


    Bakelite socket-outlets and accessories.....


    Several servant bell boards with multicoloured wire still attached..


    The good news is that I've finally started to sort my other motoring tat out to eventually list on that popular internet auction site.... eg, anyone interested in an early piece of garage equipment that got pressed into service when a customer complained of poor fuel consumption in the 50's? Basically you wound down the passenger side window a little and hung a tin can of petrol with a sight gauge on it and connected the rubber tube from it to the carburettor (presumably isolating the fuel pump) and off you drove for a few miles. On return you looked at the milometer and the drop in fuel level and the brass engraved plate gave you the mpg...... Imagine writing the RAMS etc for that task today?!!!


    Regards


    Obsessively


    BAD






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    Thanks for all the replies ? I've cut back on my hoarding a lot, but the editions of the regs... yep, guilty there too,   So far I've only got fairly recent ones (back to the 15th) but as they're books, hoarding them is more socially acceptable than say the 12m length of PILC sat outside the garage with the hessian slowly falling off...I micrometered the strands and figured out it's only the equivalent of 9 and some change sq mm, but was protected by a 100A fuse. Different rules for the electricity boards  (as they were then).   Also have a section of 3 core 16mm (I think) alu cable (I believe it's wave concentric?) that was used overhead to feed a cottage. Replaced with a single phase service when the meter was moved following an extension build, DNO abandoned it on site when I asked <grin>
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    perspicacious:

    Several servant bell boards with multicoloured wire still attached..




    Put it back into service!


    Ours was in the kitchen and powered by a 12 V AC bell transformer. It worked after a fashion, but was inaudible.


    It has been relocated to the back corridor where it powers a 12 V DC fire alarm bell, which is certainly audible. ? It took a bit of tinkering with diodes (the first spec or two fried) to get the wee flags working, but they now swing fully and freely.


    It doesn't matter that Mrs P and I don't call each other from various bedrooms and bathrooms, but we can do so if we want to. ?

  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member

    Chris Pearson:

    It doesn't matter that Mrs P and I don't call each other from various bedrooms and bathrooms, but we can do so if we want to. ?



     



    Call bells !! - how very declasse - surely one entrusts a hand written missive to memsahib,  to your batman ?


    OMS


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    BOD


    The 3 and a 1/2 has not had an outing yet but the 4 core PILC has had a few appearances. The students were strangely attracted to the weight of the sample for some obscure reason!

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