John Nottage
I’m sure the item in the photo is a lighting connector: Kliegle (or something like that) used by Lee Lighting.Pat Heigham
Think the DC plug was Kliegle – highly dangerous as they clipped into a block containing vertical bus bars, only lightly protected from investigative fingers by a rubber flap.Nick Ware
Kliegl – no E (which is one of their more worrying features!). Of American origin, hence designed for 110 Volts DC, though there are vintage adverts around, claiming 110-230V.I certainly remember doing commercials and pop videos on locations where there were Kliegls trailing back to the genny in the mud.
John Nottage
The bus bars were really lethal. The lighting cables, terminating in a little U shaped clamp with a locking screw, were locked on to the bus bars. At Wembley Arena, during a big tennis match, all the lights on one side of the arena went out. Then sparks started to fall from the roof on to the audience below. Once the fire had been extinguished (unfortunately failing to successfully burn the place down) it was found one of these clamps had shaken loose, causing a short circuit and subsequent fire.Alec Bray
The 110 volt DC supply for the Mole Crane terminated in a Kliegl connector, the width of which limited the amperage that could be taken from the socket. So a pup or a soft light could be plugged in to the same socket as the crane but in theory the socket could not be overloaded. For reasons of safety the supply was 55 volts positive and 55 volts negative which meant that in theory at least no one could get a lethal shock.Like all other cables in the BBC, the Mole power cable had to be tied off where the supply fed into the Kliegl connector. For if this connection was broken, there was no power to the crane – which meant no control over the crane: it would just lumber on…
Pat Heigham
Another story involving Kliegl boxes.Scenario: Shepperton Studios ‘H’ stage which had a tank for aquatic scenes.
A beach set with a quicksand section, consisting of a small ‘tank’ surface dressed to match the beach bit. Girl runs away from a dinosaur (!) and falls into quicksand. She was supposed to take one step to half-way in, then a further step and gradually sink under. Take one OK, but for a safety take 2, she missed the halfway step and hit the floor of the tank which was only made of plywood, which she went straight through, releasing gallons of water, sand and vermiculite all over the studio floor, and swamping the Kliegl boxes, with much flashing and sparking.
As we exited the stage, I witnessed an argument between the construction gaffer and the special effects guy, the former was vociferously complaining: “You didn’t tell me you were going to fill it with water!”
Alan Taylor
Before Kliegl connectors, at least one lighting contractor used to use single core cables with connectors made from brass, gunmetal or something similar. As onlookers, we felt that it was more like the cavalier standards seen with fairground electrics.We were shooting a night shoot for a series called “Baker’s Dozen” and some lighting cables needed to be extended. The sparks had run out of the correctly colour coded cables, so as a quick fix, one of them decided to use whatever lengths of cable came to hand.
Rather predictably he ended up not knowing his live from his neutral and when he connected two cables together there was an almighty flash and a bang as about half a metre of thick copper cable vaporised along with the metal connectors.
The electrician was covered with a generous spattering of molten metal and was quite shaken, but appeared to be completely unharmed. It did make a mess of his gloves, but would have made a much bigger mess of his hands if he hadn’t been wearing them.
Nick Ware
Mind you, not even modern connectors are necessarily safe in the hands of the ignorati..Some here (not ignorati!) will remember how one hot summer at Wimbledon, our (not BBC) truck and studio aircon was so hopelessly overworked that the total power consumption was well above what was expected (and I daresay never calculated).
Our lovely, but scarily over-zealous electrician noticed that his huge pile of 32Amp plastic Ceeform connectors, all split off from just one incoming feed, were literally melting under the load. His solution, you might think would be to run a second incoming cable to the supply and halve the load on the one and only. But no, he kept himself busy scrounging bags of ice cubes from hospitality. Lots of bags of ice cubes. A technique he kept going for the whole Wimbledon fortnight.
Hot wet connectors of any type are not a good idea!
Roger Long
Whilst shooting in Vietnam on a nighter, the local sparks were using 2 ex USAF Radar generators to drive a substantial squad of Brutes to light a village and its paddy fields. They dropped the connectors, ancient kliegls, nonchalantly into the waterlogged paddy.Nobody died..
Mike Jordan
Two similar stories!I went with the BBC 3m satellite earth station to Nassau for the Commonwealth Conference way back in 2008(!)
On the survey, I asked if there was any way to get 240v as I knew they were a 110v place.
A man came with me to power cabinet in the hotel where we were parked.
Every colour of cable under the sun! UK red/Black (proper colours), a bit of Blue/Brown, lots of White/Black (US) and as they and most of US actually used stacked 110/220 v supplies to get enough power to cookers and air-con at 220v rather than loads of amps at 110, he said, “OK we will sort it.”
Sat Truck arrives and there are two black wires hanging from a tree for us (no connectors).
So guessed it was negative and +220 and connected. Of course the safety RCDs never worked in the truck and all the neons on incoming connectors never lit.
So all OK.
Then disaster, since we thought it was time for tea so got the kettle out and NO MAINS lead. However about to solder bare ends on the pins, opened it up and mains lead inside – phew!
“Newsnight” live from a beach by the sea was quite fun and none of this internet and digital stuff in those days.
Flew up with a full sized links van, a 3m dish, an ITN Landrover and dish all inside a Freddie Laker Belfast Freighter from wartime Berlin airlift days.
All good fun around the world eh?
Nick Ware
I’m always ready to admire a blonde on a beach, but that one is a bit close to the water’s edge for comfort!Mike Jordan
I thought you meant the flooded redhead following on the spot but she wasn’t nearly up to par. And the legs on the left were quite a smoky pink.At least it was summer so no sign of a heavy frost and the sky was quite blue. That’s clear isn’t it?
Mike Giles
During the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, we discovered that in the broadcast centre three pin US style outlets were haphazardly mounted both ways, i.e. sometimes earth was at the bottom and sometimes at the top, but live was always on the right, so it was 50/50 as to whether/off switches were in the live or the neutral. I’ve no idea whether that’s common for those outlets elsewhere.That was also the first place that I came across the expression “brown-out” for a significant drop in mains voltage, or when the power went off completely: our American installation guy, one Dennis Feuzinger, would describe it as an “ongoing off situation”. It seems remarkable that I remember his name after all this time, but Hibou will no doubt correct me if I spelled it incorrectly.
Following on from a previous tale, I also once created a 13amp double ender, feeding a bayonet plug via a 13amp trailing socket, so that I could power the ground floor lighting whilst we were on holiday from a timer switch plugged into the ring main by pulling out the lighting fuse and plugging the bayonet plug into one of the downstairs lights. The only person hurt by this process was me, because there had been a power cut whilst we were away which meant the lights were on when we got home in daylight, but my wife went indoors first and turned off the offending lights, so that I was unaware that my 13amp double ender was live when I unplugged it in the wrong order! My next job was to fit timers in the lighting circuits!
I also recall being told by the EM to jump in and out of the scanner at the Devon and Exeter County Show one year ~ the ground was particularly dry and the riggers’ usual trick of parking the scanner with one wheel over the earth spike didn’t provide the necessary earth, so the scanner was floating at 120 volts with respect to earth and the PA had received a belt when she put her hand on the grab to climb into the vehicle. If I remember correctly, the A303 at Stonehenge was to blame for making the scanner very late in arriving at the venue and by the time the problem was discovered, we were already on the air.
Mike Jordan
Talking of “live” scanners, some – many – years ago we were doing a show from the Fairfield Halls in Croydon.We went off for lunch or supper and came back to find people left in the scanner saying, “Don’t touch”.
One had gone out and coming back, grabbed the rear handrail and got a shock.
It turned out there had been a fault with the generator or mains feed and the earth spike wasn’t earthing. The riggers/electricians had correctly put the spike into the ground surrounding a tree next to the scanner but unfortunately the whole paved area we were on had a plastic waterproofing layer underneath so the neither the spike nor the standby one under the wheel was actually into earth.
I don’t know about the USA but now in Canada the flat 2pin plugs are non-reversible in that one pin is wider than the other to maintain polarity safely with protective thingies inside houses.
When I brought a bit of kit back home here (some sort of video stuff I bought which is OK because I have a mini 240/110 adaptor) I had to file down the wider pin.
Geoff Hawkes
This talk of electric shocks reminds me of one of those trade test films that those of us who did attachments to Pres in the nineteen- sixties would sit and watch in idle moments during afternoon close down (on BBC2?). I think it was aimed at engineers who worked on transmitters and instructed them what to do if someone touched a live conductor. It majored on the mnemonic SIDE – the first letter meaning Switch off the source but even though I saw it many times over I’ve struggled to remember what the other letters stand for, though Insulate or Isolate and Dump may have been two of them. Some of you may know, Albert or Bernie perhaps who lived there for longer than those of us who just did a three or six months stint?Part of the answer to my own question which came to me afterwards, is that the E stands for EARTH, using the earthing rod supplied on station. The details of it still eludes me and like an ear worm that you only hear an annoying repetitive part of, it would be nice to know how the process was intended to work as filling in the gaps sometimes helps to chase the worm away,
Those trade test films may also trigger memories of the others of those films that were once so familiar due to their frequent showings,
Graeme Wall
There was one by Canadian Pacific about their railway freight services which was quite popular.Doug Puddifoot
The film I remember most was about different countries cooking styles depending on the fuel available. China had little fuel so food was cooked quickly as in a stir-fry, we had wood, open fires so roast meats, and Ireland had peat and favoured slow cooked stews.Pat Heigham
In my freelance career, I frequently whizzed around Europe in my cameraman’s twin-engined Cessna. Occasionally refuelling en-route.Pulling up to the pumps (just like a car filling station), the attendants first of all clipped an earthing cable to the aircraft to dissipate the static charge which would have built up through flying through the air. (Don’t need sparks around highly-flammable fuel!).
This reminds me of a sequence where Michael Crawford – mad git that he was on insisting on doing his own stunts – was dangling from a helicopter. An assistant director rushed to help him land and as soon as he grabbed him, got bowled over by a huge static discharge. Rubber gloves and wellie boots needed before earthing him!
Wonder if the H & S risk assessment form has a section for that, now?
Nick Ware
If the AD rushed over to help him land, that suggests that the helicopter was still airborne, and if he got bowled over it’s more likely it was the couple of tons of down thrust that toppled him. Earthing aircraft before refuelling is standard practice.A little thing that I find slightly odd is the way you say “my cameraman” from time to time. I think it would be OK for him to call you “my sound person/recordist”, etc., because he’s the crew leader and is also employing you! There’s nothing about him that’s yours.
Is that fair comment, or is it just me? On the other hand though, it’s more concise than “some random camera bod I was working with”. OK, we’ll go with “my cameraman”!
“Your cameraman” and I once did a prog for Discovery Channel about the US Marines CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters.
One of the most exciting bits was being refuelled in flight for the return journey to RAF Mildenhall. What fun!
None of which has anything remotely to do with 13Amp power extension cables, but hey, who cares?
Roger Long
Static!When working on BBC 2 “Nelsons Navy” ‘my cameraman’ Chris Openshaw and I were dropped in and out of type 42 destroyers by Lynx and Puma helios.
They always said beware of static, and signs were prominent.
I was issued with an immersion suit way too small, always a struggle to get in to it and out and was bollocked for wearing a short scarf, it could blow into an engine intake, they said.
Great fun though choppers, always loved ‘em, we flew a Chinook over a battalion of Chieftain tanks live firing underway on tortuous heathland in Hanover and over the Tigris marshes in a huge Mil Mi26 equipped with AK47 gun mounts for each window.
Climbing with your kit was always a challenge, the worst for me boarding ships in the Bay of Biscay with a Navy boarding party, climbing up the rope sea ladder on a Trawler bucking in a gale , and the reverse at dusk in February.
Hey ho…
It was a real man’s life in the Regular Film Unit…
Pat Heigham
I can’t top your stories, Roger, except to say that I flew in the Jet Ranger on Bond 007 “The Spy Who Loved Me” to pick up effects.My first ever heli ride was over the Sahara for “The Little Prince”.
The chopper and pilot were provided by the Tunisian Air Force, and he resembled Omar Shrarif, all the ladies on the unit were overcome when he walked into the restaurant.
I did fly from Aberdeen (in a Puma) to an offshore rig to re-make some footage for the fire safety video after the Piper Alpha disaster. Terrified – they put us up overnight with a regular rig member in a cabin. Very sensible, as if anything dangerous occurred, he might have known what to do. Didn’t sleep a wink, but the grub was good. I was impressed with the ‘check-in’ since they needed to know my next of kin!
While on the rig, I noticed the safety boat, circulating the rig. I felt for that crew – very boring and bouncing around on the oggin!
Nick Way
Earthing:
I was in Bangladesh in 2012 for BBC Media Action. In a Government building in which we were setting up for a debate, Kevin King called me over to the fuse box and asked if it was just his eyes that couldn’t see an earth. Mine couldn’t either! We used a Genny parked outside on the road. When Kevin asked for an earth spike, they reluctantly obliged by dropping a cable into the nearby drain.Voltage:
On a Reality Show in Mexico, my colleague rigged the video recorders, one for each hothead camera, using a plug-in USA to 2 or 3 x 13A sockets many times. I stretched my feet out under the table during the rig, and half the recorders went dead! I was more robust: we had acquired some 19" USA mains distribution panels, which I utilised to great effect using USA to IEC leads as most of our kit was universal voltage.The label on our Yamaha desk, though, only mentioned 240V. We had shipped out 3 blue construction site transformers to up 120V to 240V. We were well under the loading but the one we used did get rather warm!
Incidentally, we managed to blow the electric meter in the wall outside the villa. I have some wonderful pics. Production also had the villa next door so we powered from there until the meter was replaced. It took several days for the Electric company to arrive with the fuse, so the connections were just jumpered using left over installation cable in the interim.
There but for the grace of God, go I…
Roger Long
Our house in Bristol, near the Downs, was built in 1892, a fine Edwardian Gaff.When we renovated it in 1988 (in 100 days), the rewire revealed the original electrics. What a work of art they were!
3mm copper live, neutral and earth run in 8 cm pine conduit, each connector sheathed in rubber and silk and spaced in channels.
Brass switching throughout, radial distribution, huge ceramic fuse panel in the pantry
All ripped out and replaced with plastic…
The centre of Bristol, Hospitals and University were all DC when we arrived in 1974: one of my friends who worked for SWEB was in charge of conversion to AC.
Those Bristol houses also had Rediffusion cable which enabled Radio reception of 6-8 stations .
The cottage we now live in was rewired in 1998, for a long time the FM radio reception would wobble when a tap was switched on, we had had a earth installed as the water mains were non-conductive, the spark had driven an earth spike and had over tightened the bolt shearing the connection, so no earth.
Film kit was mostly 12v DC, so no mains aggro, the sparks however had many anomalies to deal with, I remember a drama in Devon where a scaffold rig was 150 vac to earth, due to a dry earth spike.
Vernon Dyer
The 1948 house I grew up in had 1x 2amp and 1x 15amp socket in each of the downstairs rooms, 1x 15amp in the kitchen, and nothing at all upstairs. Incidentally the house my grandparents retired to in 1952 had 13amp sockets all round, so that system is rather older than many people think.Alan Taylor
My previous house was built in 1953 and had 13A sockets when it was built, but also had lead plumbing. I would guess that very few houses were built with both of those features.Incidentally, the original 13A sockets obviously accept standard 13A plugs, but the faceplates were a non-standard size and had the fixing screws top and bottom, rather than either side. Consequentially swapping for a neater, modern faceplate was quite a hassle, involving removing the original mounting box and chiselling out the wall to accommodate a standard box.
Nick Ware
You can thank Lord Reith for bringing about the concept of the 13Amp ring main, fused in every 13Amp plug, as opposed to 15Amp sockets, each individually wired back to a central fuse box.In 1942!
Apparently. (Google is your friend in such matters).
I was brought up in a house that had plenty of 15Amp sockets that one could, and did, poke things into, which might go to explain a lot of shocking things about me!
Dave Plowman
The ring main system came in after WW2 as a material saving solution – it uses less cable than the older radial system.But I’d say they had little idea how suited it would be to today’s multitude of electrical thingies. As in a domestic situation you can have as many sockets as you want within a given area.
Alan Taylor
People who worked at Kendal Avenue may remember Eric Spanier, who was our first radio mic specialist. I once collected him from his house and was invited in. His electrical arrangements were every bit as eccentric as the man himself. He removed whatever old wiring was originally in the house and replaced it with a 13A ring main. However, he didn’t bother with minor details like fastening the sockets to the wall or having the wiring channelled into or even nailed to the wall. The wiring simply trailed around the edges of each room. He proudly demonstrated that if a socket wasn’t in quite the right place, he could simply drag it to where it was needed, and instead of buying four way distribution blocks, if he needed more sockets, he could simply cut the ring and add a new socket wherever he wanted.I initially assumed that it was work in progress, but apparently it had been like that for years and he had no intention of doing it properly.
It’s interesting comparing UK wiring conventions with German ones. My mother-in-law in Germany has a breaker panel in her basement which is almost a metre high, with maybe fifty circuit breakers and a massive loom of cables going to the various sockets and appliances. They think our massive 13A plugs are weird, but didn’t realise that they each have a fuse and that our consumer units are so small, with each breaker serving an entire floor of sockets or lights. One thing I’ve never understood is that in Germany it’s normal to have a mains socket right by the bathroom sink for using a hair dryer, but in the UK, you’re not allowed a mains socket anywhere near a sink. It’s the same 230V electricity and protected by an RCBO, but such an arrangement in the UK would be regarded as hazardous.
Mike Jordan
The BBC crew house I lived in whilst first at KA had a very good system.We needed power either side of fireplace for TV or something, so a 13A PLUG to PLUG lead stretched across fireplace from a wall mounted double 13A and into one side of a 2x13A socket – so there was the other half free to use, as I don’t think they had disboards around so much then. Only problem of course was that it meant a live 13A plug lying around.
Similar to my old story of when we went down from Switching Centre to TVI Windmill Street off Tottenham Court Road to test the videos and took a portable pulse and bar, one had to be careful about using their Mains XLR leads as they used them the other way around from BBC so a live mains plug appeared if one plugged a BBC lead into the bay sockets.
Regarding bathrooms etc, the new regs even stop pull cords within 6ft (?) for a shower head in case of splashback as they are not waterproof. So how is one supposed to plug the hairdryer in without the socket under the bathroom sink? Next to the 13A spur for the showerpump.
Alasdair Lawrance
A neighbour of mine once asked If I could make her an extension cable for the shaver socket in the bathroom, so she could do her legs while she was having a bath…Dave Plowman
You are, of course, allowed a shaver socket. Which in the old days had a 1:1 isolating transformer built in. Can’t see why you couldn’t have a similar arrangement for anything – provided the transformer was big enough.Dave Newbitt
Alan’s account of the quirky ring main installation reminds me of one I had personal experience of.In 1969 I bought a 1st floor flat in Caterham which had been the subject of a GLC reclamation from the previous occupant who had never made a single monthly mortgage repayment.
There was a huge main living room with multiple twin gang 13A outlets right round the perimeter. Looking behind each twin socket seemed reassuring – two 7/029 T & E cables feeding each one. Further examination revealed that all these feeder cables were no more than a couple of feet long fed down behind the skirting, each pair joined together in a short length of 15A chocolate block.
All these chocolate blocks were then connected to a single further chocolate block in the middle of the room USING 5A LIGHTING FLEX, with a single 7/029 then providing a feed from a 15A fuseway in the consumer unit.
Reminds me of stories of people distributing water supply throughout a house with garden hose.
Nick Ware
The house we moved into in March 2019 turned out to be full of DIY electrical horrors, despite a full electrical report that had been done only a year earlier. The all-new consumer unit, smart meter, and breakers etc., had lulled me into a false sense that all was OK.The sitting room is 12ft wide and 24ft long, a single storey extension with a high pitched roof. Inside, there are no trusses as such because the apex runs across the width, not the length, and the interior ceiling is plaster boarded with a pitched ceiling (and a horrible acoustic. All electrical wiring is inaccessible up in the ceiling.
And that’s unfortunate, because the wall lights – about 8ft above floor level – were switched in the neutral, not the live, and in that room there was a neutral-to-earth short somewhere. I found that out the minute I went to change the ghastly daylight CFL bulbs for warm white LEDs.
Then, along one long wall there are, for some unfathomable reason, seven 13Amp wall sockets about 15” above floor level. Half way along that wall there was a free standing gas stove which at first sight looked like a log burner, the gas feed being a 15mm copper pipe running all the way along the outside walls to the kitchen at the far end of the house. One of the first things we did was get rid of that, which meant removing the 6” flue that went through the wall behind it. As I drew the metal flue pipe out, I got a mains belt that I hadn’t expected! When the flue was installed, the hole cutter had cut clean through the 13Amp ring cable, leaving bare ends potentially exposed and touching the flue. And lo, there was the neutral-to-earth short!
Every switch and wall socket in the house was of the brushed steel metal type, and on most of them you could feel a distinct ‘tingle’. Needless to say, they are all plastic now, which looks much better anyway.
Back in the 1970s I used to do occasional electrical installation for a guy who did dodgy loft and basement conversions, etc. All properly done to electrical regs as they were then, and all properly LEB inspected. I learnt then that slapdash or illegal electrics were not a good idea, and would in any case void your buildings and contents insurance at the very least.
Tony Briselden
I might as well join in this conversation as I, too, have had issues.Our first house was built in 1933 and was presumably wired when it was built. There were several 15 amp sockets but they were all straight into the skirting board with the wiring exposed. That I soon changed to 13 amp and boxes to ensure that the cables weren’t a fire hazard. I don’t remember what the cables were but I don’t think they were lead covered.
When we bought our present house, which incidentally was built in 1836, it had been ‘modernised’ in 1927. First there was a bathroom on stilts built so that they didn’t have to go to the privy at the bottom of the garden.
Secondly, and possibly more importantly, they had electricity installed. There were three 15 amp plugs which went independently to a main fuseboard at the front of the house. These were used for night storage heaters when we bought the house. There was also lighting in 8 rooms which went to another main fuse board. As I remember there were only two fuses in the box so each fuse covered 4 rooms. All wiring was twin covered with lead. Perhaps needless to say my first job was to completely re-wire the house.
There is a further story however. The then owner had converted a coach house to a garage with a bed-sit on top. This was done in the 1950s and was not physically joined to the house and so had a completely modern electricity set up apart from the fact that the supply came from the house main fuse board. However it did mean that we could manage in the bed sit while I put in the new system in the house. The owner had lived in the bed sit and rented out the house!
Just as a final point the same family and their descendants had lived in the house since it was built!
Dave Newbitt
So… a very small slice of this country’s population comes up with several electrical horror stories. Makes you wonder what the true overall picture might be – probably better not to know!Clive Gulliver
With all this talk about the introduction of the of the 13A plug, I have got to add, my father was on the committee that designed it.I also was a victim of my own curiosity , I put a bit of flex between two inviting holes of a socket! Only superficial burns resulted…
Vernon Dyer
So, Clive, you’re the reason the live and neutral sockets are shielded!Pat Heigham
Those of you would worked in the sound galleries of Television Centre will no doubt remember the curious mains plugs that were used for mobile outboard equipment (tape deck trolleys). They were designed to fit only wall points providing stabilised supplies, and had a keying slot on the earth pin, plus the live pin was a screw-in fuse.I had an unfortunate experience once, leaning on the two TR90 decks, with one hand on each – as one did! I got a huge mains belt, which threw me on the floor, luckily, as it broke the connection.
Subsequent investigation revealed that both the mains plugs had the earth wires not in connection with the pin, so somehow had caused a potential short circuit, competed across the chest/heart of yours truly. The Television Centre nurse was very concerned, and wanted me not to drive home but to take a cab. Can’t remember if they gave me an ECG, but I was impressed by the care – probably there to avoid a lawsuit! Pleased to say the ticker is still functioning. Maybe that belt gave me ‘life’ à la Frankenstein’s creation!
My father had a house built and the wiring emanating from the fuse box under the stairs went radially! Modern buildings, now, it’s reasonable safe to assume the wiring to switches and power points extends vertically up and down, although use of a cable/voltage sensor is to be recommended.
The flat I bought, way back in 1977, had a TV distribution system provided by the builders. Couldn’t get a signal, so investigated. Turned out that there was a block in the cable buried in the aerial feed in a wall conduit. Excavated the plaster to find that the conduit containing the co-ax had been nailed right through the middle, shorting between the screen and conductor. Maybe an apprentice had been told to nail it in, but not with a fix either side of the conduit!
While I do agree that the UK 13A plug is large and unwieldly, I’m more dismissive of the US two bladed plugs on their 110/120v system.
My distant memory of Physics tells me that the lower the voltage, the higher the current, which is the killer!
I like the Schuko continental plugs, well shrouded against accidental finger touch and mostly with an earth connection that is made before the plug sits fully home.
Then we have the IEC standard – !
[Ed: the D&S sockets were also provided in the studio wall boxes]
Nick Ware
Those D&S Tech Supply plugs were dreadful. As far as I was concerned, D&S stood for Dangerous and Scary. It wasn’t unknown for the screw-in fuse pin to get left behind when you pulled the plug out, leaving a live protruding fuse. Not good when you’re groping around in the semi darkness behind a cyc. And, the cable clamping was hopeless, the cable easily pulled off the plug if it wasn’t tied off properly, which as you’ll remember, you couldn’t do on the SCR wall outlets.A 110V outlet may be double the current for a given load, but it’s still the same Wattage. I’m not sure how that fits with Pat’s physics killer theory.
On the run-up to a “Through the Keyhole” trip to the USA (Trump Tower and his Miami home amongst others), I had a conversation with our spark, who insisted that fitting 110V bubbles in our 2k blondes would still pull the same current (because in his mind they were still 2k). His secret solution in the event was 25mm sawn off bits of 6” nail in all our 13A plugs. On our return to UK, at the next shoot he plugged in a blonde which lit mighty bright for a second or two, then a very big bang! You can guess why.
The Trump encounter was a bizarre story in itself, but that’s for another day!
Pat Heigham
Was your spark “not Marge”? I’ve seen him do that trick with nails!Nick Ware
Ho ho, yes it was! It was in your ‘era’ with that company!Pat Heigham
It is current that’s the killer, see :… At low currents, AC electricity can disrupt the nerve signals from the natural pacemaker in your heart and cause fibrillation. This is a rapid fluttering vibration, too weak to pump blood. If the rhythm isn’t restarted with a defibrillator, it’s usually fatal.
At higher currents, DC electricity can have the same effect by causing the entire heart muscle to contract at once, which also breaks the pacemaker rhythm.
The highest currents (more than one amp) cause burns through resistive heating as the current passes through the body. If this path crosses the heart or brain, then the burn may be fatal…
Dave Newbitt
Re amps and volts. Am I losing the plot here – sure nobody’s going to quarrel with the current being the killer but how did you get to the lower voltage of 110 generating a higher current flow than 240V? Was the unfortunate body (yours!) forming the bridge from live to neutral or conducting a path from live to ground earth? Sorry if I’m missing something but so far I haven’t figured it.
