A neighbour called on me today clutching a carrier bag...
Could you look at my Christmas lights please, they aren't working?
I took the bag and dug out a set of lights about 48 in all, all wired onto some green coloured bell-wire, terminating in a 13A plug.
many of you will remember these! A bulb goes out, you short the holder with tinfoil, and all is fine. This string had several areas wrapped in black tape, where bulb-holders had been cut out and the wires twisted together. The plug was of an age whereby the L and N pins had no partial insulation (a decent quality plug by MK actually) ( I believe some call it a plug-top?!) and there was no cord grip, and the screw that holds the plug-top to the plug-bottom (trying to please everybody here!) was missing, but the sellotape was doing a great job...
I told her that there was only one place for this string and that was the bin. She then revealed that she always used these to brighten up the communal stairwell in her block of flats, by wrapping them round the iron railings on the stair, but if I didn't like them she would bin them. She then asked me to check the other set she had already put on the stairs, so off i went. Same story, the only difference was that the plug had the cardboard label on it. The plug was plugged into a socket in the meter cupboard on the ground floor with the flex jammed under the door on top of the carpet in the hall, so you couldn't shut the door properly and the string was neatly, artistically entwined round the metal railings. She binned them too. However, having been brought up with stuff just like that, I can't remember many people dying over christmas from such a set-up.
She did tell me later that she had tested the first set the night before and most of the bulbs lit up ok, but the flex got quite warm...
Could you look at my Christmas lights please, they aren't working?
I took the bag and dug out a set of lights about 48 in all, all wired onto some green coloured bell-wire, terminating in a 13A plug.
many of you will remember these! A bulb goes out, you short the holder with tinfoil, and all is fine. This string had several areas wrapped in black tape, where bulb-holders had been cut out and the wires twisted together. The plug was of an age whereby the L and N pins had no partial insulation (a decent quality plug by MK actually) ( I believe some call it a plug-top?!) and there was no cord grip, and the screw that holds the plug-top to the plug-bottom (trying to please everybody here!) was missing, but the sellotape was doing a great job...
I told her that there was only one place for this string and that was the bin. She then revealed that she always used these to brighten up the communal stairwell in her block of flats, by wrapping them round the iron railings on the stair, but if I didn't like them she would bin them. She then asked me to check the other set she had already put on the stairs, so off i went. Same story, the only difference was that the plug had the cardboard label on it. The plug was plugged into a socket in the meter cupboard on the ground floor with the flex jammed under the door on top of the carpet in the hall, so you couldn't shut the door properly and the string was neatly, artistically entwined round the metal railings. She binned them too. However, having been brought up with stuff just like that, I can't remember many people dying over christmas from such a set-up.
She did tell me later that she had tested the first set the night before and most of the bulbs lit up ok, but the flex got quite warm...
