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Old 9th Feb 2023, 12:13 am   #21
Cathovisor
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Default Re: Can anyone identify/date/tell me more about this old electric wall heater?

It is lovely, isn't it? The earlier versions were in two-tone colours with small panels picked out in a darker shade. Blue, green and beige from memory.

I *might* have one of those firebars, if you intend to keep it. I've wondered if fire cement would stick it back together - I have an oil lamp that needs the gallery sticking back on its base and have wondered if that will do.

The oldest electric fire in my collection dates from 1920 so the "Cubic" is a bit modern - and I have a 1915 Belling catalogue.
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Old 9th Feb 2023, 2:02 am   #22
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Default Re: Can anyone identify/date/tell me more about this old electric wall heater?

Another 'Like' for Cathovisor's vintage Belling fire - and for saving it from the 'upcyclers'.

There's a picture of my vintage copper bowl fire attached to this post: https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...2&postcount=34
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Old 9th Feb 2023, 2:34 am   #23
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Default Re: Can anyone identify/date/tell me more about this old electric wall heater?

Yes, the Belling Cubic is a rare delight. Here's one of my fairly recent arrivals, a Revo Moderna of similar vintage, identified from a sales leaflet that appeared on eBay: working, but I need to replace its modern cable with a heat resistant version as I soon pulled the plug once my nostrils were assailed by the smell of hot PVC. I do like its enamel.

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Old 9th Feb 2023, 12:07 pm   #24
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Default Re: Can anyone identify/date/tell me more about this old electric wall heater?

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Originally Posted by Paul_RK View Post
Yes, the Belling Cubic is a rare delight. Here's one of my fairly recent arrivals, a Revo Moderna of similar vintage, identified from a sales leaflet that appeared on eBay: working, but I need to replace its modern cable with a heat resistant version as I soon pulled the plug once my nostrils were assailed by the smell of hot PVC. I do like its enamel.

Paul
Amazing - I think I also have one of those but in an ivory/beige colour. Belling did a similar thing.

D'you know, one day (ha!) I really ought to scan all my Belling catalogues - they run from 1915 to 1975.
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Old 9th Feb 2023, 12:18 pm   #25
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Another 'Like' for Cathovisor's vintage Belling fire - and for saving it from the 'upcyclers'.

There's a picture of my vintage copper bowl fire attached to this post: https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...2&postcount=34
Thanks, Hamid. That's one fire I have seen many of, but never actually acquired. By complete contrast, I do have one of those "Scotty Dog" fires. The most practical fires I have are a mid-30s Belling "Turnbar" and a wartime model (again, Belling) that has one element horizontal (for placing a small saucepan on) and one at 45 degrees with a small shelf below the element for toasting. I am yet to find the Belling that has the retractable wooden clothes airer...
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Old 9th Feb 2023, 12:31 pm   #26
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Default Re: Can anyone identify/date/tell me more about this old electric wall heater?

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D'you know, one day (ha!) I really ought to scan all my Belling catalogues - they run from 1915 to 1975.
That's a thought I've had more than once regarding mine. I just have four: 1926-27, '38-39, '55-56 and '58-59.

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Amazing - I think I also have one of those but in an ivory/beige colour. Belling did a similar thing.
The Pillar? We've a probably late version of it, in a matt pink finish. Belling Champions remain in favour here for keeping us warm, and I've lately acquired a No.81 to add to the fleet (two 79s, two versions of No.1, a 2A, an 82A, a couple of 83Aa and three or four 91A/92A. Several of them over 80 years old and I've yet to meet one that isn't fully working.

Last edited by Paul_RK; 9th Feb 2023 at 12:41 pm.
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Old 9th Feb 2023, 1:07 pm   #27
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cathovisor View Post
D'you know, one day (ha!) I really ought to scan all my Belling catalogues - they run from 1915 to 1975.
That's a thought I've had more than once regarding mine. I just have four: 1926-27, '38-39, '55-56 and '58-59.

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Originally Posted by Cathovisor View Post
Amazing - I think I also have one of those but in an ivory/beige colour. Belling did a similar thing.
The Pillar? We've a probably late version of it, in a matt pink finish. Belling Champions remain in favour here for keeping us warm, and I've lately acquired a No.81 to add to the fleet (two 79s, two versions of No.1, a 2A, an 82A, a couple of 83Aa and three or four 91A/92A. Several of them over 80 years old and I've yet to meet one that isn't fully working.
Yes, that's it - the "Pillar". Like you, I have two "Champion" heaters for warmth here: a 750W model and a 1500W model. The 1500W model keeps the day room warm to about 60 degrees F on half-power most of the time and has been upgraded with a Crompton LED "Colourglaze" lamp in the base simply because modern fireglow bulbs are rubbish and fail quickly. I have just changed all three lamps in my mother-in-law's wall-mounted Belling heater for the same as they were constantly dying. I am yet to find a use for the little 250W "Champion" I have though. I do have an early 81 (the one where you can put a kettle on the cast-iron top) which really needs a sympathetic repaint.

I'm rather hoping this will convince the OP to keep his fire even if non-operational, although I do have a wall-mount fire with surround that meets 'modern' regulations re: guarding if he prefers!
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Old 9th Feb 2023, 10:11 pm   #28
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Default Re: Can anyone identify/date/tell me more about this old electric wall heater?

I have a 1935 Elrco catalogue which has similar Electric Fires but not the same make as yours. What is mentioned though is that they required you to state exact voltage when ordering. Which suggests there was still variation according to your location in '35.
Hope these pictures are of some interest.
Rich.
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Old 9th Feb 2023, 10:39 pm   #29
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The nice thing about that catalogue is it shows what the two-tone Belling Cubic looked like
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Old 9th Feb 2023, 10:39 pm   #30
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Which suggests there was still variation according to your location in '35.
Plenty of it - I've some 1930s copies of the Broadcaster Trade Annual, and each lists UK population centres with their supply type and voltage(s): twelve pages' worth in the 1935 volume, closely printed with five columns to a page. Something like half the supplies are 230V AC, but voltages from 200 to 250 all crop up quite often, 100V AC appears here and there, and a good many places still had DC supplies, often in the 200-250V range but again with outliers - for instance Thetford (Norfolk) 120V DC, Leyburn (Yorkshire) 130V DC, Delabole (Cornwall) a mix of 200 and 330V DC.

Paul
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Old 9th Feb 2023, 10:41 pm   #31
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And don't forget the widely varying frequencies of AC mains too - from 25 to 100c/s.
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Old 10th Feb 2023, 7:45 pm   #32
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Quote:
Originally Posted by slidertogrid View Post
Which suggests there was still variation according to your location in '35.
Plenty of it - I've some 1930s copies of the Broadcaster Trade Annual, and each lists UK population centres with their supply type and voltage(s): twelve pages' worth in the 1935 volume, closely printed with five columns to a page. Something like half the supplies are 230V AC, but voltages from 200 to 250 all crop up quite often, 100V AC appears here and there, and a good many places still had DC supplies, often in the 200-250V range but again with outliers - for instance Thetford (Norfolk) 120V DC, Leyburn (Yorkshire) 130V DC, Delabole (Cornwall) a mix of 200 and 330V DC.

Paul
This is Thongsbridge, near Holmfirth, in West Yorkshire
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Old 10th Feb 2023, 7:51 pm   #33
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Is there anywhere/anyone likely to have catalogues that would include a less well known brand/company like this? (i.e. Walsall Conduits, which is not the Walsall Conduits that exists now) or Walglow (brand)? If I could find catalogues from mid-20s through to about 1940 could probably pin this down. Is there anywhere that collects such things for posterity?
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Old 10th Feb 2023, 8:29 pm   #34
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Default Re: Can anyone identify/date/tell me more about this old electric wall heater?

Anybody interested in how these odd and slightly dangerous multipurpose electric heaters were actually used should get hold of a copy of Katherine Whitehorn's classic Penguin paperback 'Cooking in a Bedsitter' (1961), which gives a tremendous insight into bedsitter life in the 50s and 60s, a long vanished world. Belling had a big presence in the bedsitter market.
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Old 10th Feb 2023, 9:16 pm   #35
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Default Re: Can anyone identify/date/tell me more about this old electric wall heater?

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This is Thongsbridge, near Holmfirth, in West Yorkshire
Holmfirth is listed as having a 230V AC supply in 1935: 100, 200, 230 and 400V were all current in Huddersfield in 1933, whittled down to 200 and 230 by 1935.
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Old 11th Feb 2023, 6:41 pm   #36
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This is Thongsbridge, near Holmfirth, in West Yorkshire
Holmfirth is listed as having a 230V AC supply in 1935: 100, 200, 230 and 400V were all current in Huddersfield in 1933, whittled down to 200 and 230 by 1935.
Any way to know when Holmfirth might have had 200 until? It's a Huddersfield postcode, but Thongsbridge is more rural - it's the other side of Holmfirth from Huddersfield, near Wooldale (which is the parish my house is in)
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Old 11th Feb 2023, 9:02 pm   #37
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I've no data from before 1933, when Holmfirth was already 230/400V: the list doesn't mention Thongsbridge or Wooldale. The Trade Annuals also catalogue the arrival of mains supply, very relevant to inform dealers as to the likely balance between mains and battery set demand in a particular area: around Huddersfield some 23,000 of the 40,500 households were wired, a somewhat higher proportion than the average in England.
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Old 5th Mar 2023, 9:20 pm   #38
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i have a belling Zephyr 2 bar electric fire. made around 1960 which also has a convector built in .the build quality is fantastic .Its in daily use and i feel safer using it than i would a modern plastic fan heater
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Old 5th Mar 2023, 11:59 pm   #39
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I've tried but failed to work out when 210V AC would have been in use here (West Yorkshire, Holmfirth, nr Huddersfield), and I don't know what if any modification needs to have been made (nor whether it has been) to make it safe, though one would hope the electrician who rewired the house in 1989 would have checked!

Any ideas?

thank you in advance

Andrew
Why do you think it needs to be AC? In SW London, Barnes, where I lived in the early 50s the supply was 210V DC.
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