Mysterious socket - help please!

exile · 19-03-2010, 10:52

Hi all

I have just bought a flat, and there is a mysterious socket on the wall that I've never seen before. I can't find any reference to it online. My best guess is that it's an ancient phone connector. Does anybody recognise it?

Mysterious socket

Thanks

**Kymmy** · 19-03-2010, 10:59

Hi and welcome to the forum.

If it is an old style comms plug then I'd suggest it was from an internal system and not anything external. Perhaps not even voice comms..

---------- Post added at 09:59 ---------- Previous post was at 09:55 ----------

Looks like it could be a variation on the Polish WT-4 sockets, perhaps designed to take a few different style plugs

exile · 19-03-2010, 11:02

Hi Kymmy. Thanks very much.

Yeah it's not far off the WT-4, but as I'm in London I'd be rather surprised! I hadn't considered it was designed for a few different connections, that might give me some more avenues to explore. Very possibly something internal, too. I will ask around.

Cheers

**Kymmy** · 19-03-2010, 11:05

Have you traced back the cable to see where it terminates?? Is the house maybe an old hotel/office??

**Chris** · 19-03-2010, 11:12

I think that may be an old Rediffusion socket. How old is the flat?

exile · 19-03-2010, 11:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kymmy

Have you traced back the cable to see where it terminates?? Is the house maybe an old hotel/office??

It was build as residences, so never a hotel or office. I can't trace it, it goes out of the door of the flat and disappears through a wall.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

I think that may be an old Rediffusion socket. How old is the flat?

1890s, I believe. What is a rediffusion socket?

**Chris** · 19-03-2010, 11:45

Rediffusion was originally a cable radio service, but it got into cable TV in the 1950s and 1960s. While I was house-hunting in Hemel Hempstead (many years ago now) I came across something very like what you have in a living room. IIRC the owner said he believed it was a Rediffusion terminal.

exile · 19-03-2010, 11:51

Thank you both, very much appreciated. I'll let you know if I can confirm anything!

LondonRoad · 19-03-2010, 13:41

What Chris said.

Used to have them in the new town of East Kilbride in the 1960s. It did give a better picture than an aerial in those days of 3 channels and provided a fourth channel; Grampian TV. Since the output of Grampian was 95% the same as STV it wasn't a great benefit. The little box that you got had a mechanical switch that only had room for 4 channels so expansion wasn't being considered.

exile · 19-03-2010, 14:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by LondonRoad

What Chris said.

Used to have them in the new town of East Kilbride in the 1960s. It did give a better picture than an aerial in those days of 3 channels and provided a fourth channel; Grampian TV. Since the output of Grampian was 95% the same as STV it wasn't a great benefit. The little box that you got had a mechanical switch that only had room for 4 channels so expansion wasn't being considered.

Hi LondonRoad. Good to know, thank you. A bit of research this morning has led me into the weird and wonderful world of Rediffusion - did you know there was a Remembrance club that meets up every year?!

Out of interest, do you happen to know why I have two sockets? Is the second simply a duplication socket allowing two TVs to view the same signal?

m419 · 19-03-2010, 19:37

I've seen one of those, but it was in a bathroom of a council flat also in london, I think it might be old central heating???

**Chris** · 19-03-2010, 19:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by exile

Hi LondonRoad. Good to know, thank you. A bit of research this morning has led me into the weird and wonderful world of Rediffusion - did you know there was a Remembrance club that meets up every year?!

Out of interest, do you happen to know why I have two sockets? Is the second simply a duplication socket allowing two TVs to view the same signal?

Yes, you can get lost in the intertubes for hours at a time without even realising it.

At a guess, I'd say the socket has been split to allow a TV and a radio both to be run from the same feed, but I don't really know, as I have no direct experience of how the Rediffusion service worked.

Spectato · 19-03-2010, 20:18

What estate agents would euphemistically refer to as: "In need of modernisation."

The socket on the right does have the cutest little haircut though!

danielf · 19-03-2010, 20:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

At a guess, I'd say the socket has been split to allow a TV and a radio both to be run from the same feed, but I don't really know, as I have no direct experience of how the Rediffusion service worked.

You probably needed to change socket to change channel. There were 4 originally

LondonRoad · 19-03-2010, 20:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by exile

Hi LondonRoad. Good to know, thank you. A bit of research this morning has led me into the weird and wonderful world of Rediffusion - did you know there was a Remembrance club that meets up every year?!

Out of interest, do you happen to know why I have two sockets? Is the second simply a duplication socket allowing two TVs to view the same signal?

I was wondering about that myself. I'm pretty sure that we only had the one socket. Some of my brain cells that haven't been damaged by alcohol seem to recall talk of an upgrade in the early 70s. The talk was of it being able to broadcast a local channel and even police appeals direct to your TV no matter what channel you were on. We left that house in 1971 but I don't remember it every happening in East Kilbride. Could be something similar was trialled elsewhere.