Multi way light switching

James said:

I do hope you are not being serious.

if you decide to swing on a cord at the top of a 3 story staircase by climbing over the banister or other barriers in the way,
Darwin has already decided that it is possibly best for you to be removed from the gene pool for the greater good of humanity.

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Most clever kids would swing on the bottom of a rope, not the top, as you somewhat lose the swinging effect.

westward10 said:

I'll let you know once I've Meggered it and Hoovered up the mess.

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I've got a 5kv megger if you really want to check it

I've not been up to the top floor yet... but i'll take another photo when i do.

I don't think this switch will ever wear out. It hasn't yet, and it's possibly been up there for 50 + years already.


I do have a job for kenetic/quinetic in this house. There's a labyrinth of corridors and rooms on the basement floor not used for public viewing... and the switches for the long corridors are in the middle. Have to walk half way in the dark to find them.

Possibly a mercury switch.

I would not be surprised if it was 100 years old.

Nice setup, the light looks a bit pathetic though. I'd want a huge multi-tier thing! Needs over 2kW worth of filament lamps for best effect.

freddo said:

Nice setup, the light looks a bit pathetic though. I'd want a huge multi-tier thing! Needs over 2kW worth of filament lamps for best effect.

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Someone before me went round and replace a lot of bulbs with cool white LED to save money.

I think the warm white with the flicker effect might look better on some of the rooms.

It's just a non-retractive version of a bell pull cord on a bus or train that can be reached from any point. I used a similar thing in the leaders' hut on a scout campsite, where the main light was controlled by a regular pull switch with a cord that ran along all the bunk beds.

Got to the top floor yesterday, where’s there’s a door, which is locked, and no one knows where the key is…. And the caretaker ominously says “we don’t go in there anymore”

But here’s the big switch, that I’m going to call a tick-tock switch.
If you can read it, the label does say “float switch”


And the view down the stairwell. Damn near dropped my phone..

littlespark said:

Got to the top floor yesterday, where’s there’s a door, which is locked, and no one knows where the key is….

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Could I suggest a visit to the following web site HERE

Moley said:

Could I suggest a visit to the following web site HERE

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Link not working.

The house has a bucket full of unidentified keys where one might fit…. But it was just the way the caretaker said they don’t go in there…. Like there’s a reason the door is locked…

The link was to a lock picking site.
If I was there I would have to make some excuse to get in there after he said that.
BTW, you had a close call. I was asked to go back to Eyemouth this week but I was already booked on the Isle of Grain.

littlespark said:

But here’s the big switch, that I’m going to call a tick-tock switch.
If you can read it, the label does say “float switch”
View attachment 104307

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That makes sense. The switch would have a similar operating force either way. Normally one end would be weighted, while the other end would have a weighted float - the weight of the float in air being enough to overcome the counterweight and switch force, but once floating then the counterweight would take control.
I see a similar switch weekly on an ex dairy farm. The milk receiving jar is mounted on a big spring, and as it gets heavy it trips a similar switch to run the pump to empty it. When it's light enough, the switch trips off and the pump stops. Quite simple and avoids things like floating magnets in the milk receiver like I've seen elsewhere.

In this case, the weights of the two ropes will be very similar, so it will give a fairly light operating force without the need for very careful balancing of springs vs rope weight to make a pull-on/pull-off single cord switch work. Remember that this was before the days of our modern and very light synthetic fibres, and someone with that sort of social standing would not want to be heaving on a heavy pull cord.

It also shows that the installer was familiar with components outside the realm of general domestic electrics. It's a good choice, a robust industrial component designed for long service.

The milk receiving jar is mounted on a big spring, and as it gets heavy it trips a similar switch to run the pump to empty it. When it's light enough, the switch trips off and the pump stops.

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Teasmade kettle is similar. The weight of water in the kettle holds down a spring-loaded platform, then once it boils and the water syphons out, the platform springs up, disconnects the element and sounds the alarm. I suppose one can find all sorts of weight-operated switches dotted around. Traditional controllers for non-express passenger lifts often included a simple sprung floor switch as an occupancy sensor. When passengers were in the car, the car controls took priority over hall calls. And then you have the Automatic Public Convenience, where the floor switch again was the only occupancy sensor, with the result that if you climbed up and braced yourself between the walls to unload the floor, while opening the door and letting it close again, it would start the cleaning cycle with you inside. And our first dishwasher, a Bauknecht from the mid 1970s, had a simple emergency over-level switch in which water would run down into a cup that tilted and operated a microswitch, requiring the user to manually empty the cup to reset.

We had an interesting discussion on another forum about an impulse-based float level transmitter by Gents, e.g. for monitoring the level in a water reservoir, where the receiving equipment was based on normal Pul-Syn-Etic impulse slave movements but with separate solenoids for up and down, operated by impulses of opposite polarity. Every impulse moves the receivers, which could also be drum recorders or limit switches, by so many hundred gallons. The chap had found a level-display slave dial, but not the transmitter. None of us had seen a transmitter, and it became an interesting conjecture how it worked. Some spoke of a 'float switch' but in reality to do its job properly it had to be much more sophisticated than that. I'd like to see one for real.

Lucien Nunes said:

And then you have the Automatic Public Convenience, where the floor switch again was the only occupancy sensor, with the result that if you climbed up and braced yourself between the walls to unload the floor, while opening the door and letting it close again, it would start the cleaning cycle with you inside.

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Why do I get the feeling that you are talking through experience here

Lucien Nunes said:

We had an interesting discussion on another forum about an impulse-based float level transmitter by Gents, e.g. for monitoring the level in a water reservoir, where the receiving equipment was based on normal Pul-Syn-Etic impulse slave movements but with separate solenoids for up and down, operated by impulses of opposite polarity. Every impulse moves the receivers, which could also be drum recorders or limit switches, by so many hundred gallons. The chap had found a level-display slave dial, but not the transmitter. None of us had seen a transmitter, and it became an interesting conjecture how it worked. Some spoke of a 'float switch' but in reality to do its job properly it had to be much more sophisticated than that. I'd like to see one for real.

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Well the way I'd do it would be ...
Include a drum winch in the float suspension. When an "up" signal is sent, have the winch wind in a set amount of cable. For "down" signals, pay out cable.
So, if water level is rising - tension on cable reduces, a limit switch triggers, "up" signal sent, winch winds in cable, system re-reaches it's stable state for a time.