13-07-2017, 09:35 PM
Of COURSE there were fatalities linked with these sets, in fact the heyday for electrocution in the home was between 1962 and 1972 (source: John Peckham. IET) with an average of seventy deaths per year, and by 1972 10% of those fatalities caused by "faulty" domestic brown goods, but as I stated, they were more likely mostly attributable to carelessness or stupidity on the part of the owners, rather than solely the fact that they had live chassis. The design faults of live screws, bare metalwork and inadequate back covers, would at most, unless the victim was very unlucky, just give a nasty "nip".
The protection from shock with them however was minimal, and any tomfoolery could be rewarded with a wooden overcoat. As time progressed, safety for the consumer was improved, with regards access to live parts, and by the time the "widow makers" were being pensioned off in the seventies the domestic electrocutions were thankfully beginning to drop across the board.
Because there was not so much nannying in those days I think people took more care, but that's not to say there weren't the idiots. Some of the reasons for the fatalities were the ones that persist today, for instance, using mains powered radios in the bathroom is almost universally know to be a bad idea, but people still do it, whether or not it was a live chassis design is immaterial, dropped in the bath it would still kill. The latest trend is using the mobile in the bath whilst plugged into a charger on an extension lead! (Yes there have been deaths).
Back in the day customers would extend mains leads, often a set with a three core lead as fitted by the manufacturer would be augmented by a few yards of twisted twin clear bell wire, and a two pin plug with the connection knotted and insulated, if you were lucky, with some zinc surgical tape!
Another cause of danger of course is sets that catch fire. Having sets positioned to close to curtains (hence name curtain burners), or some cases of people drying washing over the back of sets was a common cause of fire, we had one lady who was the owner of an old G6 who did this regularly against advice, even ignoring the safety aspect she seemed unable to comprehend that she was the cause of the sets worse than usual unreliability. Of course service personnel lost some of it's number (one or two per year during the seventies), for obvious reasons, though we always used isolation transformers in case of accident, and to enable the use of earthed test gear. When visiting customers homes however it was easy to forget that the protection wasn't there.
We would never place our old sets against the soft furnishings, or leave it switched on and unattended, but unfortunately that seems to be the norm now with nearly every available socket replete with a PSU or charger, sitting there waiting to catch light.
The attempt to make the modern world foolproof is only producing a different breed of fool, add to that the worrying trend for some of the modern kit to apparently be worse than our beloved old TVs and radios, (regards overheating at least), means that the deaths will continue.
You shouldn't however think that vintage equipment is in some way safer than modern equipment that is correctly built, nor should anyone promote the idea that old fashioned attitudes to safety are adequate to protect against misfortune, if you practice them, it may be more than your head that's buried in the sand. The basic level of as new shock protection in most old receivers may be good enough for a sensible adult user, but working on the internals is a different mater, and I would urge everyone, especially newcomers to the hobby to read this http://www.bvws.org.uk/405alive/tech/safety.html
Enter the head kickers.
Live on and enjoy your hobby!
Andy.
The protection from shock with them however was minimal, and any tomfoolery could be rewarded with a wooden overcoat. As time progressed, safety for the consumer was improved, with regards access to live parts, and by the time the "widow makers" were being pensioned off in the seventies the domestic electrocutions were thankfully beginning to drop across the board.
Because there was not so much nannying in those days I think people took more care, but that's not to say there weren't the idiots. Some of the reasons for the fatalities were the ones that persist today, for instance, using mains powered radios in the bathroom is almost universally know to be a bad idea, but people still do it, whether or not it was a live chassis design is immaterial, dropped in the bath it would still kill. The latest trend is using the mobile in the bath whilst plugged into a charger on an extension lead! (Yes there have been deaths).
Back in the day customers would extend mains leads, often a set with a three core lead as fitted by the manufacturer would be augmented by a few yards of twisted twin clear bell wire, and a two pin plug with the connection knotted and insulated, if you were lucky, with some zinc surgical tape!
Another cause of danger of course is sets that catch fire. Having sets positioned to close to curtains (hence name curtain burners), or some cases of people drying washing over the back of sets was a common cause of fire, we had one lady who was the owner of an old G6 who did this regularly against advice, even ignoring the safety aspect she seemed unable to comprehend that she was the cause of the sets worse than usual unreliability. Of course service personnel lost some of it's number (one or two per year during the seventies), for obvious reasons, though we always used isolation transformers in case of accident, and to enable the use of earthed test gear. When visiting customers homes however it was easy to forget that the protection wasn't there.
We would never place our old sets against the soft furnishings, or leave it switched on and unattended, but unfortunately that seems to be the norm now with nearly every available socket replete with a PSU or charger, sitting there waiting to catch light.
The attempt to make the modern world foolproof is only producing a different breed of fool, add to that the worrying trend for some of the modern kit to apparently be worse than our beloved old TVs and radios, (regards overheating at least), means that the deaths will continue.
You shouldn't however think that vintage equipment is in some way safer than modern equipment that is correctly built, nor should anyone promote the idea that old fashioned attitudes to safety are adequate to protect against misfortune, if you practice them, it may be more than your head that's buried in the sand. The basic level of as new shock protection in most old receivers may be good enough for a sensible adult user, but working on the internals is a different mater, and I would urge everyone, especially newcomers to the hobby to read this http://www.bvws.org.uk/405alive/tech/safety.html
Enter the head kickers.
Live on and enjoy your hobby!
Andy.
