Moose & Molly comic strip from October 1.

LOL! Plugging electric irons into overhead lights used to be quite common in Britain years ago.

With some older homes having just a single 5A lighting circuit, I can imagine this scenario being far from rare!

Sven: How true!! Unfortunately, I see this all the time, mostly in lower income houses here in my area. The fixture in the middle of the ceiling is typically one of those porcelain keyless lampholders, with sometimes as many as two or three socket/plug adaptors screwed into it (in order to have the necessary number of plugs, of course) . Then extension cords are run from it to all corners of the room to supply power to everything from televisions to irons to air conditioners.

In one home, I traced an extension cord from one room into another. When I asked why they didn't use the fixture in the ceiling of that room, I was told "Oh, that fixture burned out several weeks ago". Mind you, this is in a house with an elderly, bedridden family member, who wouldn't have a prayer of escaping alive in case of a fire .


Mike (mamills)

[This message has been edited by mamills (edited 10-17-2003).]

The original K&T wiring was for lights only, shortly afterwards some of the pullchain fixtures were changed to a switch/receptacle combo that mama plugged her newfangeled iron onto

many still exist here