I didn't have to go very far for taking these pictures... they're right from my bedroom.

The 3-way next to my desk... right now feeding the iBook and inkjet printer.


Same style, other side of the window, supplying my vintage reading lamp - also shown in picture.


The back side of such a 3 way - they either plug into a single receptacle or screw onto the guts (mine are screwed on).


Light switch and receptacle - probably 1950s.
The brown zip cord with ungrounded plug is an extension cord feeding the TV, video and alarm clock.


Matching Schuko socket


The oldest stuff: switch and receptacle with glass face plate! (pre WWII, maybe even pre WWI). The receptacle is missing the painted piece of sheet metal behind the glass.


Way old light socket (think 1900-1910) with modern E27 light bulb - exposes a_lot_ of thread!



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[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 06-20-2006).]

very nice pics. you must have a lot of trust in these old devices...
i think i couldn't have. i would have ripped it all out long ago and given reading lamp and tv extension a new cord.

I have grown up with such old stuff... i checked everything real closely, and since the cords don't show any damage I decided to trust them.
Besides, the lamp would look remuddled with any other cord... and new twisted lamp cord is _really_ expensive!

Those round schuko outlets were definitely used here at one stage.

I've seen them in 1950s buildings, although not in active service. They're usually burried in wood panelling / skirting boards and just never removed when rewiring happened and BS1363 outlets replaced them.

WE used the same non - earthed 3 way ppt's and T adaptors in Holland, when I lived there pre 1988.

These T adaptors were officially banned but were still around on flea markets and imporiums.
Mainly because you could stick a plug in them with one prong, while the other prong was fully exposed, and could be live !!

Also the combined light switch, powerpoint and earthed schuko socket are still around in a lot of older places.

Great piccies,

The switch with the glass plate is interesting, never seen those before.

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/ZZSI30Y1950.html
That gives you the full specification for the plug/socket system in Ireland from 1950!
complete with hand-drawn diagrams, specs etc for a 10A 2-pin earthed and non earthed plug/socket system. (Schuko)

Along with test procedures!!

There's the Irish Standards (original one) mark from 1950


Creepily like the CE mark!

"A standard mark shall include the words "Caighdeán Éireannach" or the initials "C.É." and may include the words "Irish Standard" or the initials "I.S." or any other mark."

Odd coincidence


[This message has been edited by djk (edited 06-19-2006).]

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[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 06-24-2006).]

Gaah! The CE marking is an Irish conspiracy! Where will they stop? Soon we'll all speak Irish or if we're lucky English with a strong accent...

aaagh Those old flexes. Have had bad experiances with those eway back in my yonger days. 60s and 70s before I became an electrician.

They're theoretically banned here too, but still in wide use, even the smaler ones that are really bad (tend to wear loose and arc).
Everybody who works on old equipment likes to have those, since they allow to plug old round plugs (like on my lamp) into Schuko outlets. Nice for old radios and stuff.

They seem to have been common in the 1920s and 30s, even in less than upscale homes (municipial housing to be precise).
Berker still makes them, €100 a switch I think.

@kenbo: what are you talking about? the flat plastic stuff or the twisted cloth from the lamp?
Believe me, I checked the rubber of that braided cloth cord _real_ close before plugging it in! It's not brittle at all and has no signs of mechanical damage. That stuff is incredibly flexible!

The wiring in the walls is part original 1913 cloth wire, part 1960s wire in conduit. Everything is on a 30mA RCD.
I believe originally there were two switches where the white one is now, but at some point they were split up and now there's one switch to either side of the door. The wiring for two lights or a split chandelier is still in the ceiling.

This kind of Schuko socket can be widely found in 1950s houses. Older ones sometimes have them in the kitchen. They have a porcelaine body and are close to indestructible.

Well, the figure-8 cord with the tape wrapped around it doesn't inspire much confidence.

Isn't that stuff still sold over there? I know it's the most common type of flexible cordage over here for light-duty use.

It had a lightly scraped surface, so I decided to tape it. Nowhere near the conductors.
It is still being sold, but only for LV use (carries a 42V max. label even though the harmonized name (A03V-F) indicates 300V). That real old stuff with a shiny surface isn't available any more and the colors have changed too. By the way, this is a 4.5m (roughly) extension cord with a triple trailing socket made of bakelite.

We also have T-shaped and straight adapters in the USA. And those round adapters remind me of the 6-socket ones you can either plug straight in, or screw into, a wall socket after removing the face plate.

There is also a danger of inserting only one of the two plug pins and leaving the other one dangling (if you're fumbling with the adapter like in the dark).

Why they don't make them with a wider face around the socket to prevent this is beyond me.

But look at the bright side of those non-grounded sockets you installed, Ragnar. You can stick French plugs into them with no problem. They wouldn't be grounded but...hey.

I'm talking about the round-face replacement types like the ones made by Legrand. This kind of thing:


[This message has been edited by SvenNYC (edited 06-21-2006).]

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[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 06-24-2006).]

Schuko fits too... though I try not to do that for the lack of grounding.

Hi Ragnar,
What an interesting collection of stuff you have there, thanks for taking the time to get pics of it.
That lamp in Pic #2 isn't one of them "touch-lamps", is it by any chance?.
Why is there tape on that flex in Pic #5??.
Finally, I must say I like that shade of blue.

You could do that with many of the older 2-pin 5-amp British adapters too. Some of the later types (generally the ones which had a 13A socket on the front and two 5A sockets, one each side) did enlarge the area around the 5A sockets to prevent it.

Paul - Another quirk of the old BS 546 was the fact that the Earth (ground) pin of the 2Amp plug would fit the Live socket of a 5Amp outlet and the Earth pin of the 5Amp plug would fit the Live socket of a 15Amp outlet!! This of course only with the "dodgy" old unshuttered adaptors that were around. I have a load somewhere, I will try and take some pics to show what I mean. That has to be even more dangerous than an exposed live pin as mentioned above.

No, by no means! It's a plain old brass lamp with a glass shade and a inline cord snap switch (the kind with a black and red button). Cost me €30 a few years ago, found it being stored in a closet for decades when an elderly neighbor moved out.

I already explained the tape a few posts above- the cord was barely scratched, so I decided to wrap a little tape around it not to take _any_ chances. I'm sure most people wouldn't even have noticed the damage, so it doesn't seem like a hazard.

Thanks, I like the dark blue too! It's actually retro painting. Scraping old wallpaper we found remnants of the original 1914 paint job and it was dark colors like that in all the big rooms (dark blue, red, green, brown,...) and I kinda liked the intense blue. The ceiling and the upper 75cm of the walls (above the tall double doors) are off-white to keep the room from getting too dark.

That would be an interesting thing to see, if you get the chance.

[This message has been edited by SvenNYC (edited 06-22-2006).]

I'll try to dig it out behind the TV and take a picture.

I couldn't find an unshuttered 15A socket or adapter, but here's a shuttered socket that I "fiddled" to illustrate the point. BS546 5-amp plug, earth pin into live hole of 15-amp socket:




And here's a 2-pin 5-amp plug mis-mated to the outlet of a BS546 adapter:

Yikes! That's not nice!
One point for scraping grounds...

Regarding the "French/Schuko in ungrounded socket" issue, after all it's only turning a Class I appliance into a class 0 appliance - and after all for example my lamp definitely _is_ a Class 0 device... still, I'd never plug grounded electronics stuff (like computers) into an ungrounded receptacle for fear of electrostatic damage. On the other hand... my first computers accidentally have been plugged into ungrounded outlets yor years - after some plumber removed the ground connection to the water pipe in the bathroom we didn't have a ground anywhere and never knew until we relocated the meter! (Who would have thought the ingenious sparky in 1978 didn't see any necessity to include a ground wire with the new feeder???)

I was looking through the Irish Standard linked above and the diagrams of the 10A schuko plug described in it don't look drastically different from the modern 16A version.

When was it re-rated to 16A?

Supposedly the "new" dual rating is for AC & DC voltages.

Why it's still rated for DC mains is beyond me.

No idea - the oldest plugs I have are from the 50s or early 60s and they're already dual rated.

Ragnar,
Sorry mate, I must have glossed right over that.
I'm too jaded from Home-owners "fixing" cords with PVC tape.

I know that all too well... crumbling old rubber cords or cords with bare copper looking out wrapped with some tape and used to run the lawn mower...