I am in the UK.
If I wanted electrical power from an ordinary ceiling lampholder like one of these:
Are such things still available?
Or have they been outlawed by some safety regulations?
These bayonet cap adaptors were probably outlawed for safety reasons: - liable to overloading misuse, no earth available and polarity not gauranteed.
Jaymack
I haven't seen one available for a long time. In the early days of this new-fangled "electric", houses often only had wiring for lighting so these adapters were used for everthing else - including electric irons and room heaters! More recently BC to two-pin adapters tended to be supplied with electric shavers so that you could plug in to a desk lamp in a hotel room. I still have one of these in perfect condition on my desk as I type! Apart from the lack of earth and indeterminate polarity you need to remember that lighting circuits are usually fused at 5amp for the entire circuit and so the amount of power you could draw is very limited. However I do remember we used BC plugs and sockets to extend strings of christmas tree lights when I was a kid.
David
In message , Andy writes
Yup. People overloaded the lighting circuits then beefed up the fuse and burnt their house down.
Yes (on ebay) and yes.
Owain
They are not available for the simple reason that they never got the appropriate BS approval.
As to why they were possibly never put forward for approval - well the rest of the thread answers that :)
They are not intrinsically unsafe, it's the stupid things that some people used them for without thinking, irons, heaters etc. - given they were unfused, and rewireable fuses were common at the CU + handy pack of
5A/15A/30A fusewire hanging on a nail encouraged the unthinkable...Our Christmas tree lights used to be terminated in one of these and plugged in a handy lamp, sometimes using the other great now-unavailable item, the
1:2 BC adaptor. Heh.Cheers
Tim
I'm sure I've seen some old pictures of a woman doing her ironing and the iron connected the main room light via one of these conectors!!!
That last link is great. But he doesn't have the type I last used which was just a bayonet adapter from which a lead came out.
The web page shows a more upmarket one where you can actually insert a two pin plug into the back of the bayonet adapter.
Now if I can't get one then, hmmm, it's almost like one of Clive's Projects (see sci.engr.lighting) to convert a lightbulb's own bayonet plug into one of these!!!. Oh no. :-)
DIY books of the 1920s would tell you to turn one up on the lathe yourself out of cocus-wood with brass studding for the contacts.
I know I've got a "how to make an electric kettle" article somewhere.
Owain
Andy
If you really want one then keep your eyes open in Junk and Charity shops and car boot sales. Look out for old electric shavers and if you're lucky then you may find one with a BC to two-pin adapter accessory (my Father used to have one). You'll probably want the throw the manky old shaver itself in the skip PDQ though!
David
There's a pub in deepest darkest Kent in a little village called Plaxtol that still has plenty of these lovely items running things like the lights to the Bar Billiards table, the "extended" wall lights and other quaint contraptions.
This is a pub that, in my 30 years of going there and knowing the landlord
*very* well, and being slung out of in a totally incapacitated state, has not changed one iota since he took over.By the way, it came 3rd in last years CAMRA awards in Kent.
Bloody good ale, very simple bar food and a straight talking landlord that will sling you out if he don't like the look of you, especially if you are wearing only a vest on top!
Long live the Luddites .... LoL!
not legally
banned from sale in '70 or '71
No polarity, no appliance fuse, no earth, very low current rating, and no realistic cord grip. Plugging them in meant handling the pendant holder with its often perished partially bare rubber wiring, often also with no proper cordgrip. They could be endlessly christmas treed too, unlike square pin adaptors. And of course the BC sockets had uncovered unprotected live connections, so increasing the use of those while balanced atop something doesnt help safety any.
They tended to encourage falls from chairs while temporarily dazzled, burns from light bulbs, and shocks from the rubber wiring and bare socket pins. They also caused falls at ground level due to wires draped from on high, and could rip pendants sockets off their wires. And the bulb burnt the rubber appliance mains flex, making bare live patches appear. These plugs are even less safe with modern pvc wire.
The whole lighting circuit was fused at 5A, but there are other loads on it already, plus the bulb holders were typically rated in the region of 1-2A. I dont know if BC sockets still have current ratings printed on them. So the power you can not-really-safely draw is low. That didnt stop people putting silly loads on them though, like irons, heaters, etc.
Way back, before electricity was metered, it was charged according to the number of lights you had, and sockets were a lot extra, so it was common for houses to have lighting but no sockets, hence the spread of BC plugs.
Later, in the days when round pin sockets were always fittred, it was common to have just one socket upstairs, in the hallway, and none in bedrooms. So again BC plugs came the the rescue.
If you decide to make a BC plug, CFLs have a plastic base which is amenable to drilling, cutting etc and generally ways to fit a cover securely. You would however be contravening the most basic of regulations, placing yourself at assorted risks, as well as anyone else in the house, and I dont know what the insurance co would say in the event of a claim. Nor the judge.
I cant really think of any reason to use them today. An electric noose in case suicide by hanging fails? whatever your reason is, I suggest thinking again.
NT
Are there better tools for an arsonist then?
My mother used to do that Ca 1951-2.
The assembly of bayonet lampholder, dual adapter, 150 watt bulb (bare), and bayonet connector for the iron used to swing around like crazy as she was "Dashing away with a smoothing iron" to the tunes of "Housewives Choice".
The whole set up was nasty, rubber insulated twisted flex which hardened and got crumbly, zero or ineffective strain relief whilst the weight of the whole lot including 2-3 metres of Iron flex hung from a ceiling rose.
Makes me cringe to think about it.
DG
In message , Andy writes
The monstrosity of great luminosity was inspired by the old two way BC adapters. They would have a new lease of life these days with the lightweight CFL's.
In message , "dennis@home" writes
Oh yes. ;)
My Dad did that once...think it was inspired by something in Practical Mechanics!
It was a cuboid thing made from copper sheet, presumably brazed or something. Standard electric kettle element, filler cap and a curved copper pipe out of the top. Added an oven timer from an electric cooker (easy to come by as he worked for a cooker company - Tricity) and a teapot and a built in table lamp, home made again. Oh, and a mains powered buzzer.
Voila! A D-I-Y- Teasmade! My parents used it for years.
During the war it was illegal to use power sockets at all because of lack of electricity. A light socket plug could be made by breaking the glass off an old tungsten bulb and attaching fly leads to the wires inside. (Ok its only a joke).
John2
Later than that, surely. I remember buying them from Woolies in the 80s, Woolies had updated ones with a small sideways screw holding the screw-on cap on.
Owain
Have just taken some photos of the 2 bayonet plugs I have, these are the type that hardwire direct to the appliance.
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