Talking of 'plug tops', I went to a job a couple of weeks ago where a decorator complained that he had received an electric shock while stripping the paper from the chimney breast - he had downtooled and scarpered.
It was a big house, over a hundred years old, according to the owners the wiring was brought up to date just after 1948!
This is one of those occasions where the volt stick came in handy. As I waved it across the chimney breast it started to light up and buzz. I managed to trace a vertical line from the top of the chimney breast to about three inches above the mantel where there was a small bump in the wallpaper.
The circuit was identified as a downstairs ring main and isolated so I could peel back the wallpaper. I found a round brass plate (about the size of the old penny). When I pulled on the plate it came away from its base and I had in my hand a small plug which had three round prongs.
The top prong was made of brass but the other two prongs were 2Amp fuses - I then removed the base plate and it was a minature socket powered from a nearby old mk single socket.
Has anyone got a clue what this fused plug top was/is used for.
I couldn't get photographs because when I showed it to the owner of the property, the first thing he said was, is it valuable, and whisked it away.
It was a big house, over a hundred years old, according to the owners the wiring was brought up to date just after 1948!
This is one of those occasions where the volt stick came in handy. As I waved it across the chimney breast it started to light up and buzz. I managed to trace a vertical line from the top of the chimney breast to about three inches above the mantel where there was a small bump in the wallpaper.
The circuit was identified as a downstairs ring main and isolated so I could peel back the wallpaper. I found a round brass plate (about the size of the old penny). When I pulled on the plate it came away from its base and I had in my hand a small plug which had three round prongs.
The top prong was made of brass but the other two prongs were 2Amp fuses - I then removed the base plate and it was a minature socket powered from a nearby old mk single socket.
Has anyone got a clue what this fused plug top was/is used for.
I couldn't get photographs because when I showed it to the owner of the property, the first thing he said was, is it valuable, and whisked it away.
