Rules and Guidelines
Want to participate in the discussions? Please read our Community Rules and Guidelines. Need some help? Visit Support and Answers.

  • State Not Answered
  • Locked Locked
  • Replies 38 replies
  • Subscribers 32 subscribers
  • Views 3538 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
You may also be interested in
This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

Lost Electrical Skills. Rough Justice.

Zoomup
I went to give an estimate today. Fuse board renewal. A holiday chalet. Some family members had stayed, aged early 20s. A rewireable fuse had previously blown on a lighting circuit. The young guests had no idea how to replace the fuse wire even though  a new fuse wire card was there.


 I am feeling very old. I am listening to Bananarama's "Rough Justice," 12 inch version, 1984.

It still sounds good on vinyl.


Fuse wire is dead....long live fuse wire.


Oh, to be young again.


Z.




  • 0
    Wiring a plug would be completely out of the question, then!
  • 0
    One of my lady customers was muttering about her teenage son and his lack of life skills.


    He said “I don’t think the house phone works”


    His mum asked “Is there a dialling tone”


    He said “What’s that?”.
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    I'm in my 40s and the only time I have used fuse wire was when repairing an ABS module on a van.......
  • 0
    Still, my "old school" skills helped today in the 1960s wired holiday chalet. The owner had removed a ceiling light and was left with two reds, three single blacks and a hidden earth wire (C.P.C.). After declaring that the light wasn't earthed he got confused and could not fit a new ceiling rose. The wiring was a cross between conduit wiring and three plate.


    So there is still some use for us old uns. (Polishes finger nails on sleeve after a mouth blow)


    Z.
  • 0
    I remember the days when wire fuses were the norm. On lighting circuits, if fuse wire was not to hand, a fairly safe improvisation was a single strand of wire stripped from a piece of scrap flex.


    I can also remember the fairly general use of gas lighting ! And most people expected an electrician to be "able to fix the lights" even if these were gas lights.


    As a teenager, we had a neighbour with only a 20 amp service from the electricity company ! And it proved sufficient. 6 sub-circuits, each of 5 amps.

    Water heater, 1 kw

    Bathroom heater, 750 watts.

    Bedroom heater, 750 watts.

    Ceiling lights

    Lighting sockets.

    5 amp socket in kitchen for a no heat washing machine, or a 1 kw kettle, or a toaster, or the Hoover.


    Cooking was coal burning, coal fire in living room. A couple of gas lights as well as electric lights.

  • 0
    broadgage:

    I remember the days when wire fuses were the norm. On lighting circuits, if fuse wire was not to hand, a fairly safe improvisation was a single strand of wire stripped from a piece of scrap flex.


    I can also remember the fairly general use of gas lighting ! And most people expected an electrician to be "able to fix the lights" even if these were gas lights.


    As a teenager, we had a neighbour with only a 20 amp service from the electricity company ! And it proved sufficient. 6 sub-circuits, each of 5 amps.

    Water heater, 1 kw

    Bathroom heater, 750 watts.

    Bedroom heater, 750 watts.

    Ceiling lights

    Lighting sockets.

    5 amp socket in kitchen for a no heat washing machine, or a 1 kw kettle, or a toaster, or the Hoover.


    Cooking was coal burning, coal fire in living room. A couple of gas lights as well as electric lights.

     


    That's very interesting broadgage. You are a walking historian.


    Z.


  • 0
    I have been interested in electricity since I was a young child, and can remember details from then.


    I can for example remember most of the electrical installation at the first school that I attended !


    Class room lighting was six lamps each 150 watts, one 5 amp circuit per room. No power circuits in old classrooms. Heating was a coal fire.

    One 15 amp socket in the passageway. Never saw it used.

    Outside toilets with gas lights. No electricity supply to toilets.


    New extension consisted of a modern building and two porta huts. 

    Each hut had a 30 amp sub main via twin with earth cable. Four electric heaters each of 3 kw and 9 lamps each of 100 watts. The 30 amp fuses blew regularly.


    The new building had wall mounted gas heaters with an odd control system, whereby the heater was turned OFF by applying 8 volts, this being obtained from a time switch and a bell transformer. It took a six year old a long time to work out the operating principle.
  • 0



    The new building had wall mounted gas heaters with an odd control system, whereby the heater was turned OFF by applying 8 volts, this being obtained from a time switch and a bell transformer. It took a six year old a long time to work out the operating principle.


    Was that a short pulse 8 Volts, or did the supply have to be maintained to keep the gas off? Perhaps it latched off after the 8 Volts was supplied?


    Z.


  • 0
    Ah pre-fabricated classrooms - the only part of my junior school to have 13A sockets,  one in each of the two rooms... Many short extension leads, 5A round to 13A, and vice versa, 15A to 13A, 5A to 15 A etc.

    I do vividly recall the day one of the caretakers stood on the desk to change a rather recalcitrant filament lamp - large globe thing, may have been 150W, I'm not really sure.  This had a screw in base, and it stuck, then as he applied rather more force the threaded part came away from the glass, with a crunch, then with a very loud bang and flash all the lights went out in both sides of the hut, causing the other teacher to come through to ask why..

    We did not learn much about electricity that day, but many of us sitting close enough to the desk in question learnt a new word !

    The local authority sparks came later that  day and removed the base of the lamp with pliers and then restored power, presumably with a length of fuse wire somewhere further upstream.

    Mike.
  • 0
    Zoomup:



    The new building had wall mounted gas heaters with an odd control system, whereby the heater was turned OFF by applying 8 volts, this being obtained from a time switch and a bell transformer. It took a six year old a long time to work out the operating principle.


    Was that a short pulse 8 Volts, or did the supply have to be maintained to keep the gas off? Perhaps it latched off after the 8 Volts was supplied?


    Z.




    No latching, the 8 volt supply had to be on throughout the time that the heaters were not required.

    Each gas heater had a continually burning pilot flame, with the main gas supply under thermostatic control. No electricity supply was needed for operation thus. The thermostat controlled the gas supply directly.

    For time control a small resistor was fitted to the thermostat, heated by the 8 volt supply and thereby "fooling it" into "thinking" that the room was warm enough and closing the gas valve. 

    It was claimed that the very low power of the heating resistance only SLIGHTLY raised the temperature of the thermostat, and that the heater would still operate if the room was very cold, to prevent frost damage.


    Even as a young child it worried me that only a single wire was run to each heater with the return via the gas pipe.


Community Rules & Guidelines