What age is my Australian Bakelite (hard plastic) electrical accessorie?

[waltzing67]

This subject most people tend to over-estimate the age, by around 10 years. So some facts, Clipsal (founded Adelaide, 1920-present) made Bakelite fittings 1930 on, HPM (founded Sydney, around 1934 to present) made Bakelite fittings 1934 on, Ring Grip (founded Melbourne, around 1924 to present) Bakelite fittings 1930 on, Sturdee (founded Melbourne, around 1947 until early 1970's) made Bakelite fittings through out afore mentioned period and ELMACO (founded Melbourne, 1950 until 1980`s) made Bakelite fittings through out afore mentioned period.
I hope this helps, I intend to add what marks to look for to narrow determined age later.
Regards,

[jillywinkle]

thanks 🙂

[curraone]

Looks like there was a fairly comprehensive ebay guide some years ago, Jilly

https://www.ebay.com.au/gds/Authenticating-your-Bakelite-items-/10000000004419187/g.html

[waltzing67]

I followed the link, and found it to be interesting reading, though it doesn't cover determining the age of an electrical accessorie. To clarify, in Australia, yes brown electrical accessories tend to be phenolic formaldehyde and white tend to be urea formaldehyde whilst coloured items used such products as beetle powder, and possibly others. Why these where used as late as the 70's and 80's, I'm not sure (due to the heat resistance and an unwillingness to redesign and reinvest in some products?). It was also not unusual to see a switch made in the 1980's that superficially looked identical to a 1930's version, even though from an engineering point, the design had changed over the years. These hard plastics (as some electrical manufacturers referred to thermoset plastics) began to share the market in the 1950's with Rubber, and the new thermoplastics including PVC and Nylon and in the 1960's polycarbonate plastic. With a melt point of between 190-350 deg C Nylon has heat resistant qualities comparable to Bakelite and tended to be used around electrical terminals where higher temperatures are likely to be encounter.
Regards.

[chameleon54]

Your post raises an interesting point. Many sellers may not be aware that early electrical fittings are a popular collectable. Brochures of products and the fittings themselves sell very well.

 One of the secrets to success on ebay for the smaller seller is to sell unique items. It doesnt have to cost a lot to buy or sell for hundreds of dollars, it just has to be unique. It is this sort of unusual stuff that no-one else has, that can set a seller aside from the crowd selling womans clothes or phone accessories.

When you find this stuff at a garage sale or market, it usually only costs a few coins, but it can be turned into blue and orange coloured notes very quickly.