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Multiple Ring Spurs.

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When was it common to run a ring final in a loft of say a bungalow, and have multiple spurs running down to sockets in rooms below? Why did this come about? Was it a wartime materials' saving provision? I am working in an old building wired in the early to mid 60s and no sockets seem to be on a ring, just spurs, but there are rings at the fuse box. The collection of a multitude of junction boxes is something to behold. It is junction box city, now all hidden under layers of glass fibre insulation. A real pig.


Z.
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    well perhaps it employs the benefits of the ring but reduces cable therefore copper use although it will use a lot of JBs .

    in the past the mindset (quite understandably to some degree) was materials were expensive, sometimes rare or hard to source, and labour was cheap.

    To try and change our mindset from what "always was" to what actually is can be a struggle sometimes


    Just one example,

    in my area social services/occupational therapists often asked me, on a rewire, to put sockets nearer hand height on the wall rather than "just above the skirting or this "new fangled" 12 inch above the floor. Also gang switches together say top bottom of stairs a 3 gang switch rather than folk walk into a room to switch light on then walk back to switch last light off then back into room again. In my town folk had the mindset of switches in rooms wheras neighbouring town the mindest tended to be gang switches "because that was the way it`s always been cos all our houses were done that way" regarding lightswitches. And pull switches in bedrooms a lot of folk were used to calling them "lazy switches" or even "lazy Betty switches" (who the heck was Betty) and therefore thought it lazy to be able to switch the "Big Light" off whilst in bed, they would rather beggar about walking to switch by door and use a table lamp becasuse "it`s always done that way".

    Funny things them humans.
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    I did some work in a house wired in the same way but the bedroom sockets were on the ring with spur drops to the ground floor sockets, not many of them which was the problem. Also no earth on the lights. I think it was a 60's house certainly no earlier.
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    I once had a central heating system wired like that.
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    ebee:

     And pull switches in bedrooms a lot of folk were used to calling them "lazy switches" or even "lazy Betty switches" (who the heck was Betty) and therefore thought it lazy to be able to switch the "Big Light" off whilst in bed, they would rather beggar about walking to switch by door and use a table lamp becasuse "it`s always done that way".

     


    I am going to reinstate a damaged lazy light pull cord ceiling switch this coming week. It is two way switched with the door switch. The lazy switch is positioned over the bed head. The wall switch box is made of wood. The three core cable has red, white and blue coloured cores. There is no earth wire. Who needs an earth when the switch is plastic and the box is wooden? Oh, the good old simple days when a ceiling switch was an additional  luxury.


    An on line search reveals this,


    What is a lazy Betty?

    A lazy Betty is a pull-cord light switch, which may be operated from a bed. In answer to the obvious follow-on question ' Why is the light switch above beds called a lazy betty? Who was Betty?' the only comment I've been able to find sadly says 'No record for "lazy betty" '


    Z.


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    Might have been a Manchester saying perhaps "Lazy Betty" . Even though they are actually still in Lancashire like us top uns they do have the odd strange saying "down the back ginnel" I think that means a back street but particularly narrow compared to a normal back street.


    Mind you Norfolk have Bootiful Turkeys!" LOL
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    It is a perfectly legitimate way to wire a ring circuit and with old-style single patress sockets much easier to wire than the loop through normally used now. I don't think it has anything to do with cable quantities or availability. Lots of roof insulation is a bit of a pain, I have a pointed metal rod with a hook on the other end for pushing cables through the insulation to be on the top. I suggest you make one. It saves a lot of itchy arms situations!
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    ebee:

    Might have been a Manchester saying perhaps "Lazy Betty" . Even though they are actually still in Lancashire like us top uns they do have the odd strange saying "down the back ginnel" I think that means a back street but particularly narrow compared to a normal back street.


    Could be a "ten-foot" i.e. the access road between the backs of properties, which is usually 10 feet wide; but I understand it to be a passageway between two buildings - hence the phrase, "stuck like a pig in a ginnel". On the other side of the Pennines, it might be known as a "snicket".


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    When was it common to run a ring final in a loft of say a bungalow, and have multiple spurs running down to sockets in rooms below? Why did this come about?

    I have heard of this before. One theory was that it was an alteration/rewire of an original radial system that either only had one cable dropping down to the socket or a conduit that was too small to take both cables (and re-cutting a ceiling to near floor chase for every drop wasn't desirable).


       - Andy.
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    On the other side of the Pennines, it might be known as a "snicket".

    Not as simple as that - generally they're snickets in Bradford and Huddersfield but ginnels in Leeds.


    Some hold that ginnels are narrow paths between building, whereas snickets are bounded by hedges or field walls - but as places became urbanized the distinction got lost. 10' wide would be generous around here for a snicket or ginnel - more like 4' or 5' footpaths. The wider victorian alleys to the rear or between terraces (originally for a cart to service the earth privies) are generally referred to as 'back roads' in these parts.


       - Andy.
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    Only last week I came across a 4 bed property that had the left and right sides of the house split into RFC as apposed to downstairs and upstairs convention! ?

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