Lead cased 240v cable?

[Beeezer]

I came across some of this lead cased copper 240v cable today.
I don’t think I’ve ever come across it before.
The actual copper wires are wrapped in what looks like a wax paper.
What era would it be from Victorian times? Found in a old wooden barn connected to a old cast iron light switch.

 

[OJCar]

I've seen it in buildings that went up in the 1930s.

 

[Beeezer]

I've seen it in buildings that went up in the 1930s.

I shall try and find out how old the shed is it came out of.

 

[jerrytug]

I've seen it on 1950's English trawlers as well. It protected the cables very well. Never knew it was used in houses!

 

[RonA]

Used a lot for subsoil installations ( armoured cable predecessor?) per search on www. Also in corrosive atmospheres which would tie in use on trawlers. RonA

 

[OJCar]

Just spoke with Aged Parent, he says it was in use from the 30s to 50s.
Getting a decent earth thro the lead outer was a pain.
Yours looks like rubber insulation, he says there was a type that used oiled paper insulation.
Don't touch the oiled paper insulation with bare hands as the oil is PCB based.

Also there were Lead Outer cables that look like lead water pipes in use from Victorian times till the 20s/30s

 

[brightspark]

its still working in peoples houses ive seen a few

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

See it in a super market, were every littler helps in 2015. Build was in the late 80's early 90's.

 

[brightspark]

I came across some of this lead cased copper 240v cable today.
I don’t think I’ve ever come across it before.
The actual copper wires are wrapped in what looks like a wax paper.
What era would it be from Victorian times? Found in a old wooden barn connected to a old cast iron light switch.

View attachment 342864

rubber coated cores and wrapped with cotton material then the lead sheath that type was never waxed or oiled . mainly used to see it 50 years ago in large victorian houses and churches people with loads of £££££££ who could afford electric instead of gas lamps . we burnt the lead off and weighed it in with the copper on rewires

 

[MetalMonkey]

Lead cased was used from the turn of the century up until the 1950s.
Rubber insulated (VIR and TRS) was used into the 60's

Then you had that horrible aluminium stuff in the 70' and early 80's

 

[brightspark]

Lead cased was used from the turn of the century up until the 1950s.
Rubber insulated (VIR and TRS) was used into the 60's

Then you had that horrible aluminium stuff in the 70' and early 80's

yep still a lot of houses near me still wired in it and slowly burning out once tightened up the aluminium creeps and loosens off . was never a good idea using it in houses .its only any good on large cables and buz bars using crimped joints

 

[Cobbler]

The house I grew up in had lead covered cable, it was there until both my parents had gone & the new owners gutted it 20 years ago. There was also a 10amp 2 pin plug, the like of which Ive never seen another. Also fuses both on the live & neutral, how dangerous is that, blow a neutral fuse & the circuit stays live!

 

[zx9]

yep still a lot of houses near me still wired in it and slowly burning out once tightened up the aluminium creeps and loosens off . was never a good idea using it in houses .its only any good on large cables and buz bars using crimped joints

I don't know but suspect it was at the same time as they did central heating in steel pipes, going by the stuff in my Dad's old house that would have been very early 70's. Was there a copper shortage at the time?

 

[Blobber]

Used to pull loads of it out doing rewires in the 80s, made for a nice drink after a visit to the scrap man!

 

[Cobbler]

I don't know but suspect it was at the same time as they did central heating in steel pipes, going by the stuff in my Dad's old house that would have been very early 70's. Was there a copper shortage at the time?

Yes there was, I can’t remember where but there was a political problem in the mining country. The copper tube that was available was thin walled to save copper & couldn’t be bent, it just wrinkled & collapsed. Stainless tube was tried as well & you needed special flux to solder it, it’s a long time ago & I can’t recall how successful it was. I worked in a builders merchants at the time & all the plumbers complained about the copper tube, reckoned it was rubbish.

 

[brightspark]

I don't know but suspect it was at the same time as they did central heating in steel pipes, going by the stuff in my Dad's old house that would have been very early 70's. Was there a copper shortage at the time?

yep thats why it was used apart from ther steel pipes they made thin copper pipes that wouldnt bend to save on the copper it was called red stripe as they had a red line painted on it to identify it

 

[JimmyS]

I've just been pulling out cut ends of lead sheathed cable this last week as well. Main runs had been taken out a while back but bits down inside lath and plaster were still in place. Usual crap I find here, 2.5mm ring with 2 spurs off one socket, further 0.75mm spurs off each of the spurs to wall lights and a nail caught in one of the cables as it rises up the wall.

Plumbing -Hep pipe on separate feeds to utility or so I thought but on closer inspection the mice have eaten through them so they are redundant. Will hopefully find them when the floors come up.

The thin copper would be table Z copper (Hard). Normally its table X (half-hard) or it used to be before they changed the BS.

 

[Kayos]

I once lifted some floor boards and found a huge mess off choc blocks.
They had paid for a rewire so he joined the lead cased wire with choc blocks and fitted a new consumer unit, then swapped all the sockets etc

Was a fire waiting to happen

 

[Dave-sparks]

There were many different types of lead covered cables as each manufacturer had their own systems. There wasn't much standardisation in the early days of electricity and each manufacturer could design and make their own cables, accessories and wiring systems.

Off the top of my head the BI (later BICC) had a lead cable system called 'Helsby twin'

There was a system called 'Stannos' which used a coaxial cable with a single conductor insulated with cotton and a lead sheath. This was a TNC type system where the centre conductor was the live and the lead sheath was a combined neutral and earth.

 

[Dave-sparks]

The house I grew up in had lead covered cable, it was there until both my parents had gone & the new owners gutted it 20 years ago. There was also a 10amp 2 pin plug, the like of which Ive never seen another. Also fuses both on the live & neutral, how dangerous is that, blow a neutral fuse & the circuit stays live!

Fused neutrals were a requirement of the regulations for single phase circuits many years ago. In those days the neutral couldn't be relied upon to be reliably connected to earth and the fuse was necessary as a fault on the neutral could be just as bad as a fault on the live.

These days our neutral supply is reliably connected to earth and so that danger is removed.