Lead Cable

[shazbutz]

One for the memory bank! Any ideas when lead "insulated" twin and earth was used? Came across loads of it today left in situ possibly following several rewires..

 

[telectrix]

lead sheathed twin cable was used in the 20's and 30's. maybe into the 40's.

 

[GLENNSPARK]

and i bet a lot of it would still come back clear on an IR....

 

[Pete999]

Started work in 1961 lead was still about then, but not used much as was VIR TRS thats vulcanised Indian Rubber and Tough Rubber Sheath the good old days when Leckies were Leckies and there wern't any Electrical Trainee scuse the bad grammar been at the vino

 

[Besoeker]

lead sheathed twin cable was used in the 20's and 30's. maybe into the 40's.

It might have been even later.
I have some recollection of stripping the ends for terminating. Whet I remember is that it was dead easy to strip. Nick around the lead sheath a bit, bend it a couple of times and it slid off ever so easily.

Now, I know I'm a a very grumpy, very old phart but I don't think even I would have been doing that in the 1940s.......

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Started work in 1961 lead was still about then, but not used much as was VIR TRS thats vulcanised Indian Rubber and Tough Rubber Sheath the good old days when Leckies were Leckies and there wern't any Electrical Trainee scuse the bad grammar been at the vino

just stripped out a load of VIR the other day....

you never know...it might have been your install i dragged out....

 

[Besoeker]

Started work in 1961 lead was still about then, but not used much as was VIR TRS thats vulcanised Indian Rubber and Tough Rubber Sheath the good old days when Leckies were Leckies and there wern't any Electrical Trainee scuse the bad grammar been at the vino

So have I, so definitely not excused!!!
OK. Admonishment over.

Another thing I don't see these days is conduit, specifically metal conduit. When I was growing up, pipe bending was a skill that most electricians had and one who were particularly good was nicknamed the "Black Pudding Bender".

Scruits? Anyone remember them?

Interestingly or otherwise, both conduit (EMT) and Scruits (wire nuts) are still routinely used on the other size of the pond.

 

[sparkdog]

In the 1960s we used to keep a supply of lead cable aid fittings.If we found a lead installation,any new circuits were done in the same.

 

[7029 dave]

I don't think you would have seen lead twin after 1940's, it was way before VIR, lead singles was even used in the early days.
Rubber twin was used up t the late 60's, then pvc, 1044, 3029,7029 etc.

 

[Lucien Nunes]

You could buy lead-sheathed and TRS twin from the same catalogue in the 1920s and they were still both there into the 60s. Certainly, the popularity of lead-sheathed faded long before PVC replaced TRS but they were available.

The war changed many things - conduit fell out of favour for basic domestic work and TRS came into its own. At the same time it brought us plastic insulation, I think PE was ahead of PVC at first and there is cable of that age still in use - it doesn't get green goo like the later stuff. PVC was not reckoned to be a very good insulator at the time, it did not measure up half as well as TRS or VIR, it was a kind of emergency substitute for rubber which was difficult to obtain.

An odd thing I've found is what appears to be mid-1930s PVC wiring inside equipment. A few of these machines survive and they all appear to have original wiring, and older folks who have known about them for a long time all think it's original too, but it's definitely PVC. The company that made them was very forward-thinking in a way so they might have been some of the very first users of PVC.

 

[GLENNSPARK]

You could buy lead-sheathed and TRS twin from the same catalogue in the 1920s and they were still both there into the 60s. Certainly, the popularity of lead-sheathed faded long before PVC replaced TRS but they were available.

The war changed many things - conduit fell out of favour for basic domestic work and TRS came into its own. At the same time it brought us plastic insulation, I think PE was ahead of PVC at first and there is cable of that age still in use - it doesn't get green goo like the later stuff. PVC was not reckoned to be a very good insulator at the time, it did not measure up half as well as TRS or VIR, it was a kind of emergency substitute for rubber which was difficult to obtain.

An odd thing I've found is what appears to be mid-1930s PVC wiring inside equipment. A few of these machines survive and they all appear to have original wiring, and older folks who have known about them for a long time all think it's original too, but it's definitely PVC. The company that made them was very forward-thinking in a way so they might have been some of the very first users of PVC.

Sorry Lucien but try telling councils up & down our green and pleasant land that one mate...

much post war council stock was wired using conny.....

theres much of it still in service i may add....

 

[Robotstar5]

A house (built about 1900) we moved into mid 60's had lead sheathed lighting circuits and VIR to both 15A S/O's (one upstairs and one down)
My father installed new rings for S/O's (pre part P!) just after we moved in and I re-wired the lighting early 80's as one of the bedroom lights would flicker when the lead cable was disturbed in the loft.

 

[GLENNSPARK]

A house (built about 1900) we moved into mid 60's had lead sheathed lighting circuits and VIR to both 15A S/O's (one upstairs and one down)
My father installed new rings for S/O's (pre part P!) just after we moved in and I re-wired the lighting early 80's as one of the bedroom lights would flicker when the lead cable was disturbed in the loft.

probably an issue with the metal joint boxes used with lead sheathed cable then...

i doubt it will have been the cable itself...

 

[Engineer54]

The chances are, if you strip back the sheathing of those old Lead Covered, VIR, TRS etc cables you'll probably find the insulation is still as good as when it was installed. It's the terminated tails of these sheathed cables that haven't fared too well over time generally because the rubber of the time wasn't too clever in hot environment especially in the presence of incandescent lighting fixtures, or where they were frequently abused load wise....

I wouldn't mind betting that many of the modern day PVC cables will suffer exactly the same sort of tail degradation after some 40, 50, 60 years!! lol!!

I think i've stated before, that i've used the TRS T&E i stripped out of my parents house to wire the garage (in protective metal conduit) sockets. No problems with freezing temperatures in the UK winters either, unlike PVC T&E... loll!!

 

[Lucien Nunes]

OK Glenn perhaps it would be fairer to say - 'conduit started losing ground to other systems'?