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British Friends,

Would you be able to post a photo or two of the type of electrical plugs that EMG and Expert used in their gramophone power cords? My Senior has a white bakelite British three-pin, but it looks to be a fairly new replacement. Would any in the web link below fit the bill in terms of looking similar?

http://www.sundialwire.com/plugs.aspx#category

Best,

Garret

Until the mid-1950's most British homes were wired with separate circuits of 2, 5 and 15 amp rating, each using a different size of round pin plug and socket. Each appliance was fitted with a plug appropriate for it's rating, and most were made of brown Bakelite.

From the mid-1950's the 13 amp ring main using square pin plugs became the industry standard which continues to this day. Almost all older homes will have been rewired to this standard, so the older round pin plugs will have been discarded.

The earliest 13 amp plugs continued to be made of brown Bakelite, and in the course of clearing the former home of an elderly relative recently, I found a couple.

I believe all the plugs on that site are for American use, flat contacts. All British plugs had cylinder contacts not flat. 3-pronged plugs were introduced in the 50's.
For safety reasons, I always remove the original power cord and plug, keep them tucked away in the case. Then replace with a modern three core cable and 3 amp fused plug. ALWAYS earth the metal casing on the motor. Sometimes this will trip the power in your house telling you that there is a leak in the motor. Without an earth, if there is a short circuit the motor could be live and kill you.
Most short circuits occur when the insulation sheath on the wires perishes, baring the cable. Most of the time the copper wire is fine and instead of replacing them I use modern high temperature sheath tubing and simply recover them.

You can of course replace the old power cord and plug with new vintage look types. You could even earth the motor via another cable.

Thank you, Chunny and epigramophone!

I will have more photos and questions to share on my Expert Senior soon...can't wait to get everything in tip-top order!

Garret

While there's no accounting for the desire to live dangerously, I don't know anyone in the UK who would use original round pin plugs on something, even for authenticity.

The UK used to use these...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BS_546
...typically with brown plugs and sockets back in the day.

The UK now uses these...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BS_1363
...with several extra safety features - the in-plug fuse being essential in modern houses where the only other protection may be a 30A fuse or 32A circuit breaker.

It is possible to get a fused adaptor to convert from round pin to our modern square pin sockets, and I think it's possible to get (non-authentic) half-sleaved round pin plugs, and maybe even a shuttered adapter. You could even install a vintage-looking socket I suppose. But I doubt anyone would.

Cheers,
David.