ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades 1961 Electrical Regs

Just been having a read through a hard-cover edition of the Handbook to the 1961 Electrical Wiring Regulations that was given to me by a guy at work.
And I must say there is some rather strange stuff in here.
For a start, everything is in Imperial measurements, there are capacity charts for wooden casing (trunking) for use with VIR insulated conduit wires and there is copious mention of Permits to install Electrical Wiring.
Anyhow, I thought I'd get a few pics of the diagrams used in this text, you guys in the UK may have seen some of this gear before:







Sorry about the quality of the pictures, but I should have used a scanner instead of using my Digital Camera.

Interesting -- So BS546 and BS1363 were once used in New Zealand then?

That middle image showing a ring looked very familiar and sent me running to the book shelves. I have open in front of me the A.S.E.E. (Association of Supervising Electrical Engineers) Guide to the I.E.E. Wiring Regulations 13th Edition, 1955, as amended to December 1963. There is a diagram illustrating the ring circuit which is so similar to yours that they must have a common origin.

The only big difference is that the ASEE version shows the earth running separately at the source instead of being bonded to neutral at the panel, which of course is how the circuit would have been wired here.

The labeling has obviously been re-done, but is otherwise very similar, and specifies 7/.029 cable, which was also standard for rings here.

I don't have a functional scanner here at the moment, or I'd post my version. I'll add the image when I get the chance.

Nothing strange about that. The IEE here was a relatively early adopter of metric, and they didn't switch over until about 1970.

What about the "2-pin T" and "2-pin parallel" outlets? Have you ever come across them? They look suspiciously like NEMA 1-15 and 1-20 receptacle configurations.

Oh, just one last observation..... Your NZSS 1125 outlet is upside down!

Paul,
Yes, they were once used quite prevalently here, mainly for the Secondary sides of Double-wound Isolating Transformers and Step-down transformers, to prevent cross-voltage plugging.
The socket was actually mounted on the transformer body.

Where did the current Australia / New Zealand standard come from? and when was it introduced?

Why was BS 1363 abandoned in NZ in favour of the current system?

Dave,
Sorry it's taken me so long to come back with a decent answer.
As far as records go here, the Standard that gives us our Plug/Socket arrangement, the earliest that I can find is 1935 and it was called NZS 198, the same name it has to this day.
Although, the Australians call it AS 3112.
Dapo may be able to enlighten us as to the origin of this Standard.
To tell you the truth Dave, it never really was abandoned here, but at the same time, it was never really used either.
It was used as an alternative to the current plug-socket system, but it just never caught on here (Thank God!), the Radial circuit being more popular at the time, because of the use of Wood Trunking and (later) Steel Conduit, would have made the Ring Circuit impractical.
I did my time under an Elderly electrician at the PoCo and he told me that in the years after the War (WWII, I assume), new Aluminium Conduit came out and as far as Arthur told me, from then on, everything seemed to be made of Aluminium.
He used some pretty nasty expletives when I asked him about bending it though!.
However, we do still have the ring circuit here though, it's pretty much limited to Caravan Parks and LV/HV Overhead Lines systems.
For those of you that don't already know, like Paul, I hate the idea of a Ring circuit, but lets not go there, eh?.

Seems like BS1363 has the same status in New Zealand as Schuko (CEE 7/7) has in Ireland. i.e. it's not abandoned, just never used.

BS1363 with 32A rings are perfectly legal here in Ireland but, oddly enough it's just appears not to have really caught on as a way of doing things. The vast majority of installations being based around 16Amp fused or 20Amp MCB radials feeding BS1363 socket outlets.

Works quite nicely as a system.

"What about the "2-pin T" and "2-pin parallel" outlets? Have you ever come across them? They look suspiciously like NEMA 1-15 and 1-20 receptacle configurations." In Australia, the 2 pin T has found its way into caravans & motorhomes for 12 volt appliances. The packaging for these plugs is marked as 32VAC 15 Amps. The 2 pin Parallel plugs do fit a NEMA 1-15 or 5-15 socket (tried it & fits perfectly). The only place I have seen the 2 pin parallel used is in Albury, NSW in a couple of 1950s vintage houses. No idea what they were for (power phone or radio?).

Darren (32VAC),
You've jogged my memory.
The 2pin-T here was used as an Aerial and Earth connector, for Valve radio sets in the 1930's and 40's.
I rememeber my Great-Grandfather had a really elderly Valve set at his house way out in the sticks and also a huge Aerial system that went with it.
It also had it's own Earthing system too, that was kept right away from the Mains Earth.
The pin on the radial line (like our current earth pin) was the Earth of the Radio system, the other being the Aerial.
I remember my Great-Grandmother freaking out one day to get the Radio unplugged from the Aerial one day, with the sound of thunder overhead, we missed the end of the Cricket game between us and Aussie.
When the radio was connected back up(some minutes later) and turned on again the Radio New Zealand News was on and told us we had lost.
What a downer!
Having your house wrecked by lightning and satisfying a Cricket fan are two different things, I rate the second one to be more important.

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 01-05-2005).]

Here's the British version of that diagram from the old ASEE guide, complete with printing error showing a fused neutral!

Note too that it shows a spur feeding two separate outlets, which is not permissible today.

Paul, I never saw you sneak your Ring circuit picture in there!.
At the bottom of the picture, there is an erratum note, does that refer to the Spur box having two fuses, instead of the usual 1 fuse in the Phase?.
One strange thing about our ring circuits, the spur was never mentioned here, it was just a ring circuit and that was it.
With the UK ring system, is there a limit to how many spurs/fixed appliances that can be run off the one ring?.
As in, you wouldn't be allowed to have a spur coming off every point on the ring would you?.