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Dangerous Electric Kettles
SIR,-Dr. W. R. Lee ( 11 September, p. 616) mentions that half the deaths from electrocution of women over 60 are due to the use of scissors in the investigation of the connectors of electric irons and kettles, and suggests that these deaths are a hazard of old people living by themeselves or reflect a lack of instruction of the older generation in electricity. I would like to suggest that what they do reflect is a dangerous appliance, made so by its so-called safety devices. If it were specifically designed as a booby trap for old ladies the present design of electric kettles could hardly be improved on.

I have done post-mortems on two of these cases and the picture is quite typical. An old lady is found dead in her kitchen. On the table is the electric kettle, empty. In her left hand she holds the connector on the end of the flex and in her right a metal skewer. What has happened is that the kettle has boiled dry and the consequent overheating has released the " safety " device which throws out the connector. The old lady comes back into the kitchen to make her tea and finds the kettle not boiling. She sees that the connector is not in its socket, thinks " How stupid of me," and tries to put it in. Because of the strength of the spring she cannot do this, assumes an obstruction is present, and investigates with the first item to hand in many cases a metal skewer. She does not even have to make good contact with the floor to be electrocuted because the earth contact on the connector is on the outside and she is firmly gripping this.

It seems to me that the design of the present-day electric kettle is faulty in at least two respects.
(1) Ejection of the connector (which remains live) is dangerous. Not only can the above accident occur, but it could be ejected into a bowl of water, when, as so often, the kettle is used on the draining board. A totally enclosed contact breaker is required.
(2) The earth should not be on the outside of the connector but should be just as inaccessible as line and neutral-deep in a socket.

In conclusion it seems that electricians exercise a mysterious double-think about earths. Water pipes and stone floors are considered to be dangerous but conduits and
earthed apparatus are safe. Both can make an equally good return circuit for an electrocution.

I am, etc.,
J. W. NICHOLAS, Essex County Hospital

Author:	paulzolo [ Thu Nov 24, 2011 4:54 pm ]
Post subject:	A spot of medical research
I’m picking up the mantle of tracking down the family history. So far, so good. Ancestry.co.uk has helped verify some stuff, and provided a lot of census information so we know a lot of what people did, where they lived etc.. However, one person who seems very elusive is my maternal grandfather. He was a doctor, and from what we can tell a fairly important one too. I know he was a consultant pathologist at a hospital in Colchester. We also believe that he may have been responsible for developing blood tests. You can probably guess that he was an estranged family member. My mum only managed to get back in touch with him a few years before he died. I know we have some medical types here - I’m not asking them to looks stuff up, but I would like pointers to know where to look. For example, I believe that he had things to do with developing/improving blood tests for glandular fever. I have a feeling he may have done other work. Thing is, I don‘t know. What I remember of him, he was fascinated with computers and had a bitching hi fi system with hidden speakers around his house. We didn’t speak much about his work at the time. Sadly he, and his second wife have died. My grandma carries such a chip on her shoulder (in fact a pretty poisonous one which is why he was only a part of my life for a short couple of years) about him that we don’t talk to her about him. So, where to start? Where can I look to find out more about what he did?

Author:	belchingmatt [ Thu Nov 24, 2011 5:18 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: A spot of medical research
Would FOI requests to relevant departments/councils help you?

Author:	TheFrenchun [ Fri Nov 25, 2011 9:26 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: A spot of medical research
Start with Google Scholar? then science direct?

Author:	JJW009 [ Sat Nov 26, 2011 1:32 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: A spot of medical research
That's an excellent letter, and examining any modern electric kettle will reveal the safety measures he advises

Author:	paulzolo [ Sat Nov 26, 2011 5:39 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: A spot of medical research
Jesus. £31 to buy a PDF of an article written in 1950 from The Lancet.

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Author:	paulzolo [ Sat Nov 26, 2011 5:42 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: A spot of medical research
EVEN BETTER! He invented slide rule for Haemotological Calculations! Here’s his article about it. http://jcp.bmj.com/content/10/2/208.full.pdf That is so cool. Today he would have written the software for it. He was a bit of a geek from what I understand.

Author:	paulzolo [ Wed Nov 30, 2011 6:55 pm ]
Post subject:	A spot of medical research
OK, so more information about him comes to light. According to my dad, he was offered the post of Government Pathologist, but turned it down because it would interfere with his research. What I need to do now is: 1 - Try to locate his entry in what I imagine would be a Medical Who's Who. Don't know the title f the book, but if someone can give the the correct title I can go from the (would have to be an early 1980s volume). Apparently, his entry is quite extensive and has a list of his patents and research. 2 - Back issues of The Lancet and the BMJ (though PDFs from that seem to be free). With all the will in the world. I'm not spending £31.50 for a PDF of something from the 1950s. I will be wanting to find an archive. Not sure where to start on that - possibly the British Library? 3 - Try to see if I can find an example of the slid rule. The may be a prototype somewhere at my parents', but I suspect it may have gone. So I'm going to drop a note to the Wellcome Institute, the Science Museum in London and the National Museum of Computing. Suggestions of other medical museums which may be able to help would be helpful. To the medics out there: his name was Dr Jack W Nicholas, and he was a consultant pathologist at Essex Hospital in Colchester. I don't know if he's ever come up in your work, education or research. He seems to be on a lot of blood disorder committees and his research (from what I can find out) was in this area. I do know that he developed and patented a number of blood tests, including some for Glandular Fever (this is what I am to,d anyway). I'm not asking for you to do any digging on my behalf, but I would be interested to know if his name ever cropped up in your travels. I only knew him for a couple of years before he died, and my interest has been piqued recently. I think the large pile of tapes I had dropped on me last year got me thinking about him more.

Author:	cloaked_wolf [ Wed Nov 30, 2011 8:31 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: A spot of medical research
Not known to me but will have a snoot around in the next few days.

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