Those BS1363 sockets look ancient. Has this house gotten a lot of moisture damage?

Acetylene lights? I thought the norm in the 19th century was coal gas (mostly hydrogen). I associate acetylene with miner's headlamps (and very early automobile headlamps).

Is this in town or in the country?

I still have a few of those GEC light switches in my box (pic #2 top/middle and pic #3), although they're a little cleaner!

I'd put the MK sockets at early/mid 1950s, which is consistent with the rubber-insulated cables. The BS1363 standard didn't appear until the very end of the 1940s, so there weren't many British homes which had these sockets before about 1950 at the earliest.

Cool finds.

If those pics are any indication of the rest of the place, I would say you guys have your work cut out for you.

Oh boy, that house looks like it sat empty and open for decades! (And probably has a few roof holes too)... usually I see stuff like that in houses that get bulldozed soon.

Right! Got a few of the GE switches, tho used for a model railway layout these days, only 12 Volt.

Anyone know any history on the 'Walsall Patent' switch?

This is right out in the country, all mod cons 1860 style including acetylene lighting (now in the Biggar Gas Museum), plumbed bathrooms, electricity arrived 1954. There's not a lot of roof left...

Too bad... but that's what it looks like!

more from Gideonr:

Crikey,
Talk about moisture damage!.
Them switches used to be used here in NZ quite prevalently.
5A switching load aren't they?, I have seen some as low as 2A, from back when lighting circuits were rated at 5A a piece.
I see on the switch bodies that they had an English patent, that seems strange when at least one company here made them, but the majority were imported from Good Old Blighty!.

Interesting thing about the acetylene lamps, knowing the house is in the country, that makes sense. Generating acetylene at home is far easier and less complicated than generating coal gas.

Yes, a lot of these switches were rated for 5 amps maximum, and as you can see the GE type above is marked "For A.C. only." The tunbler switches with their quick make/break action were suitable for D.C. as well, which was still in use in some towns in the 1950s.


There was the Walsall Electrical Co., which goes right back to the 19th century.

Crabtree was also based in Walsall, and if you look at that switch the design is remarkably similar to that of the typical 1940s/50s Crabtree tumbler switch:




I'm not sure whether Crabtree was actually spun-off as a separate enterprise from Walsall Electric, but it seems a possibility.
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=36193#s22



[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 02-10-2007).]