However, I've seen vintage radios and lamps with similar twisted pair cords connected to BS546 plugs. HUGE black round ones from the 1940s
A twisted twin cord wired to a 15A BS546 plug does indeed look rather strange. A favorite trick for getting a proper grip on these cords with BS1363/BS546 15A plugs was to wrap several turns of insulation tape around the cord to increase its diameter.
THe smaller 5A BS546 plugs looked a little better with such cords, and often grip fine without this treatment.
Why don't the European appliance manufacturers use the neoprene jacketed cords for their irons and hotplates and stuff?
Neoprene cords have taken over to some extent here, and you'll see them on plenty of heating appliances, including some newer irons.
I guess we're just attached to our cotton-covered cords. By the way, the fancy way to keep the trimmed cotton ends of these cords neat and tidy for termination is to apply heatshrink, but the average person just uses the tape trick again.
Why did Ozzie radio manufacturers have to make the cords that LOOOOONNG?
I can't think why they would attach 9 or 10 ft. cords to transistorized radios.
Some long cords on 1940s/early 1950s vintage radios actually contain an asbestos-insulated dropper resistor as a third conductor in the cord. These sets typically used a series-filament chain on the tubes, with the voltage adding up to 120V or thereabouts. When the same designs were released in Britain, a very long cord was needed to drop the 240V supplies down to the correct voltage for the filaments.
Apparently some people didn't realize the necessity for the long cords and shortened them, so over-running the tube filaments.
Does anyone here know if there were different standards for pulse/loop disconnect dialling?
I think you'll find that some later foreign telephones would operate at 20 pps instead of 10. Step-by-step switches couldn't keep up at that speed, but crossbar and electronic exchanges could use the faster pulsing.
There are also differences in the specified make/break ratio in different countries, generally 60/40 vs. 67/33, although most switches would keep pace with either unless they were way over on the opposite end of their tolerance.
For sounds of the old telephone networks, I can thoroughly recommend the
Phone Trips website. It's mostly American, but there are a couple of audio files of the British supervisory signals circa 1971 as well. Many of these were still in service from the 1940s or earlier.
