here an old installation then

[nickblake]

Got a call out to sparks by the fuse box , and i'm not suprised either the installation dates back to the 20's or 30's old lead sheethed cables with black rubber there is some steel conduit with braided singles in it to unfortunatly had to DN the installation and DNO disconnected there supplies luckily there was no one in the property the sparks were spotted by a passer by who came over to tell me so it was police fire and electricity board all good fun eh nice eh take note of the pull cord on the pendant for those not old enough to have seen one of these it was quite common for an iron to be plugged into it with the pull cord to switch it on , oh and this one was in a bathroom !!!

 

[shocking_eg]

lovely old setup there !! LOL

 

[Marvo]

There's nothing wrong with that old lead sheathed and cotton wrapped cabling, looks like it should last at least another 50 years if it's left alone. It's probably those new fandangled MCB's or isolators that's causing the trouble.

 

[nickblake]

couple more pic's and a heads up for the younger sparks take a close look at the consumer units , incoming supply fused neutral and live and also the out going fused neutral and live , and here's the warning and what to look for , between the fuses is a plate of asbestos ,also behind the fuses of the small board pictured below is also asbestos so if you come across this type of board be careful and of course the good old wooden one too

 

[spidersparks]

Loving the pendent adaptor things they used to get up to years ago I had a friend when he bought his house we found a adaptor in his landing lamp holder to take a torch lamp all in baca lite

 

[ian.settle1]

Thought people who lived around Anglesey and Bangor still lived in caves and didn't know what eletricky was

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Got a call out to sparks by the fuse box , and i'm not suprised either the installation dates back to the 20's or 30's old lead sheethed cables with black rubber there is some steel conduit with braided singles in it to unfortunatly had to DN the installation and DNO disconnected there supplies luckily there was no one in the property the sparks were spotted by a passer by who came over to tell me so it was police fire and electricity board all good fun eh View attachment 17698View attachment 17699View attachment 17700View attachment 17701View attachment 17702View attachment 17703View attachment 17704View attachment 17705View attachment 17706View attachment 17707nice eh take note of the pull cord on the pendant for those not old enough to have seen one of these it was quite common for an iron to be plugged into it with the pull cord to switch it on , oh and this one was in a bathroom !!!

just out of interest...try an IR test on the lead cable...bet you its still good...

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Loving the pendent adaptor things they used to get up to years ago I had a friend when he bought his house we found a adaptor in his landing lamp holder to take a torch lamp all in baca lite

they used to run irons of them as well

 

[nickblake]

just out of interest...try an IR test on the lead cable...bet you its still good...

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they used to run irons of them as well

i will when i go back

 

[nickblake]

Thought people who lived around Anglesey and Bangor still lived in caves and didn't know what eletricky was

pics were really a new install from my cave were a few years behind still we got lecy now so im off to do some ironing in the bathroom

 

[JD6400]

They are also handy for running chargers of them if there are no sockets about , or if you are working on them !:leaving:

 

[ayjay]

the quality of those early installs was amazing compared to the cra-p these days
in those days an apprentiship was a proper indentured deal, a minimum 5 years
its a far far cry from the cra-p nowdays

 

[GLENNSPARK]

them boards will be good for continued service as well no doubt...semi-encloseds...great for inrush...

 

[LlandrilloSpark]

Took 4 of those out of my sisters house in Holyhead last year, and I also took some out in Llanfair PG, in my sisters the immersion was still supplied by the lead cable, when I striped it back 4 inches it was absolutely mint, and IR tested well

 

[grantr37]

Got a call out to sparks by the fuse box , and i'm not suprised either the installation dates back to the 20's or 30's old lead sheethed cables with black rubber there is some steel conduit with braided singles in it to unfortunatly had to DN the installation and DNO disconnected there supplies luckily there was no one in the property the sparks were spotted by a passer by who came over to tell me so it was police fire and electricity board all good fun eh View attachment 17698View attachment 17699View attachment 17700View attachment 17701View attachment 17702View attachment 17703View attachment 17704View attachment 17705View attachment 17706View attachment 17707nice eh take note of the pull cord on the pendant for those not old enough to have seen one of these it was quite common for an iron to be plugged into it with the pull cord to switch it on , oh and this one was in a bathroom !!!

I have seen a lot of these in old buildings in and around glasgow, mainly old houses that were up for demolition and also a few old houses and shops that are in outlying areas in the city, 2 or 3 miles from the city centre in areas that were once busy(50+years ago) but now mostly forgotten and abandoned/not lived in, some of the old houses somehow managed to come back into use due to new people taking on ownership, and small businesses are using them as kind of "secret storage" as they still look unused and dusty on the outside, they store things and stock in them as their main shop storage has been broken into before, choosing an old building that nobody notices in the middle of nowhere as opposed to a fresh new storage building that every crook knows exactly who is using it and what's likely to be inside...they come to us asking for new lighting and sockets to be put in with a new board, one of the guys that was using one for storage asked to keep the old stuff there(disconnected) for history's sake...should have taken some photos, might ask him to take a few pics and email me them...

I have seen the old 3 pin round sockets and plugs in there, cylinder vaccum cleaners and irons still on the old twisted india rubber flex with a bayonet light fitting plug on the end, I have also seen bayonet wall sockets at waist height with a bakelite switch on them for plugging into which they had before even the round pin plugs came in....

I have been in one old building that had bare wires along the ceiling on ceramic bobbin clips which was from the old 90volt system that goes back about 110 years(was lighting only back then)....there was still a rusty old transformer (disconnected for a lot of years from the house but on the 230V overheads going to the houses via rooftop) and it was buzzing loudly enough to be heard from about 25m on a quiet day....even though it was defunct it still buzzed away...

 

[grantr37]

clicked once, post came up twice....

 

[wildgoose]

Lead covered cable (Mackintosh cable?).

Recommended for a 25yr normal service life.
Strongly recommended for replacement after 30yrs
The cable has not been manufactured for at least 50yrs

And i am still finding it in working installations?????

 

[philbet]

when do you start the rewire then

 

[Engineer54]

Lead covered cable (Mackintosh cable?).

Recommended for a 25yr normal service life.
Strongly recommended for replacement after 30yrs
The cable has not been manufactured for at least 50yrs

And i am still finding it in working installations?????

Just goes to show that the old lead and TRS cables were pretty dam good for there time!! lol!! It was only ever the tails that that became brittle, and that was mostly due to the heat baking them from incandescent lamps, or overloading sockets etc!! Think i have mentioned before, i used the old TRS cable i stripped out of my parents house during a rewire, and used it in the garage. Apart from the ends at the wall accessories, the cable was as good as the day it was installed. And better suited for a garage install as it's immune to cold and freezing temperatures ...Unlike our modern PVC cables!! lol!!

 

[ayjay]

trs insulation makes great catapult elastic too

 

[Stroppy]

bare wires along the ceiling on ceramic bobbin clips which was from the old 90volt system that goes back about 110 years(was lighting only back then)

I was reading about ths a few weeks back. I don't know about the UK but it seems in the USA it is called 'knob and tube' wiring, unless the system you've seen is different to this?

Knob and tube wiring - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia