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The old radios i've come into contact with here in Ireland didn't even have the wires colour coded so I don't think polarity made a lot of difference. They were wired with twisted pair cables just like the cables used on lamps and the 2-pin schuko style plugs were reversible.

Also as a matter of interest a lot of irish pendant light fittings arn't polarised at all. The cable running from the ceiling rose to the lamp is quite often white twisted pair with so either terminal could be live, not that it matters with the BC connections normally hanging from them. This type of cable seems to hook around the grips inside the rose and the lamp holder much better and also looks nicer.

Most older lamps here too would have used this type of cable right up to the plug. Schuko plugs gripped the cord perfectly however, with BS plugs you often had to tie a knot around the cord grip to ensure it held correctly. There was a double pole press-button switch used in the middle of the cable too. Although im sure in many cases it was single pole.

Very old appliences like vaccum cleaners also used heavy twisted pair in some cases! This was usually inside a cloth cover but the terminals sometimes wern't identified. Just two black cables and a green for earth!

djk,
Our pendant fittings are the same over here.
For years our pendants were connected with 2-core lamp cord, wrapped as you say around a torturous path in the pendant itself.
BTW, do you guys have a maximum wieght limit for pendant light fittings over in Ireland?.
By memory, I think it is 0.5kg for .75mm2 2-core.
I'm reminded of a guy over here a few years ago, that ended up in hospital w/ concussion, after a heavy glass shade that was fitted to a pendant pulled the wires out of the cieling rose and fell on his head.
And from a 12 foot stud cieling, this must have hurt somewhat!.

The twisted pair pendant cords, usually with each conductor individually cotton covered, used to be very common in England too, as did plain PVC-insulated twisted pair for radios and bedside lamps.

New rules in the mid 1970s, however, required cords to be double insulated, so they've gradually disappeared. I still see some old pendants fitted with the twisted pairs from time to time.

That's not to say that double-insulated and coded cords weren't in use on radios long before that. A lot of early 1950s sets gad it, with the standard red and black inner cores.

Even the twisted twins were coded sometimes, in that once you strip the insulation you'll see one wire has bare copper strands while the other is tinned to give them a silver appearance. The latter is the neutral, although you can't guarantee that somebody who didn't realize the code hasn't rewired the thing at some point and mixed them up.

Flat, 3-conductor zip-cord (kind of like a 3-wire version of American SPT1) was used on some radio equipment in the past. The center conductor was used as earth, and generally fitted with a green sleeve at the plug end to identify it, but the other two conductors were not always identified. I have an early 1960s Marconiphone phonograph wired that way.

On the modern BC pendant sets, I find that the round double-insulated cords take quite a time to straighten out properly after installation, unless they have a heavy fixture hanging on them.

Yeah there is a maximum weight limit I'm sure but generally common sense applies.

Some of the very old ceiling roses have 3 hooks around the sides so that heavy shades could be hooked on with chains. Generally though anything heavier than a normal shade will have to be installed instead of a ceiling rose / pendant. I haven't seen too many glass shades that can just be screwed on to a lamp holder.

That must have really hurt though! Ouuch!

Most pendants thesedays have a round blue/brown 2 core cable going into to the top or 3 core if it's not a plastic bulb holder.

Here's a fancy brass ceiling rose with hooks


Still find plenty of old twisted pair telephone cabling too around houses too always Grey and white.


[This message has been edited by djk (edited 09-27-2003).]

Paul,
Just a comment,
Yes, it does, but have you ever taken down a piece of the old fabric covered two core during a rewire and noticed how the wire retains it's straight form after it has been hanging down for many years?.

Yeah, funny that....

There's one handing here for 22 years and it's still not straight!

djk,
Just as an aside, at least your brass looks reasonably authentic, not like our fauxbrass, ex China!

Picture of the improved Australian plug



Link to big picture