Collecting - Yet another bit of cable

Its been a while since I purchased an antique cable sample, but recently a piece of unusual heavily armoured cable came up on eBay. Luckily there was a make an offer button and he accepted an offer of 50% of what he had been asking, so I am happy I got a good deal!

The same seller has a couple of other pieces but I have been unable to negotiate a good enough deal.  I do wonder if he clicked accept by accident last time, it was a very good deal.

I've never seen a cable this well armored before, I would guess its for use in areas with a high risk of fouling with ships anchors? Its also the first twin core cable I have purchased, regardless this thing is heavy so it will be living in the office till I next get a lift home.

Collecting - Cable

I received a very kind gift recently of an oak box with a slice of cable inlaid into it the lid.  The underside of the lid is stamped with "British Insulated Cables Ltd Prescot Lancs".  A quick bit of research has found that they changed there name to the above in 1925 and changed their name again in 1945 to British Insulated Callenders Cables or BICC, after their merger with Callenders Cable and Construction Co. This at lease narrows its production down to a twenty year window.

As for identifying the cable itself this has proved a lot more difficult. Its clearly a lead sheathed power cable but beyond that I am struggling .

I think the next step will be to find a catalogue from BIC during that era which will hopefully have a description / drawing that matches.  Failing that the Liverpool Museum seem to of inherited much of the companies archive so that might be an option.  If anybody has any ideas I would love to hear them.

Collecting - Cable

I have done it again and purchased yet another piece of cable, the only difference is this time I know nothing about it.  Does anybody have any ideas of how I could go about identifying it?  It looks from the size of armour strands its from a coastal section but other than that I don't have a clue.

Collecting - Cable

I said it would only be a matter of time before I added to the cable collection.  I was right,  I just got an absolute bargain on eBay for a piece of the first transatlantic cable with silver plated ends .  I have come up with design for a display rack, so once I have a few more I will start that project in earnest.

Collecting - Cable

Some people collect things, I have never really been one of those, but I think that might be changing. Now my parents would disagree and say the large quantity of vintage computers mainly BBC Micro's filling there loft is a collection, I would say its just some useful equipment I have collected over the years, oh bugger maybe it is a collection.

So what have I started collecting?  Well I have started collecting cable and when I say started I have two pieces which is I guess the minimum to count as a collections but a have saved an eBay search so its only a matter of time before I have more.

I first purchased a piece of collectable cable in 2007 from the Hoover Dam whilst on a lads trip to Las Vegas. It was a pen holder made out of a short length of hollow high voltage conductor cable, designed to carry 287500 volts across the Mojave Desert.  The cable is hollow to save weight, this is possible because most of the electricity flows through the outer surface at high voltages, it is referred to as skin effect.  The construction of the cable is ten interlocking tongue and groove strips on a slight spiral, this enables the cable to expand and contract. Sorry to geek out but I do think its a cool design.


It was a Seven years later I was browsing eBay looking for a Morse key (another project I will write about some day) and I saw a whole lot of undersea telegraphy cable sections for sale.  So I bid on them, all of them.  Luckily I was outbid on all but one of them, if I have won them all I would of been in for a couple of thousand dollars.  The one I won ended up costing me just under £50 including postage so it has not broken the bank.  The only problem I have is that I do not know where or how to display them, maybe I should make some form of display rack...