That's the one!!

I haven't been able to find any reference to it on the web!

These things must have caused mayhem on the power grid back in the day. They worked well enough but you adjusted the temperature of your shower by reducing the flow rate to make it hotter. In the summer months it was quite difficult to have a shower at less than scalding temperatures.

The strange thing was that they were installed in homes that were connected to the street with 4 x 4mm² consumers aerials rather than the minimum standard for today which is 10mm². On top of the water heater, the stove (usually across two phases) plus light and power (on the phase not used by the stove) were connected.

If by the slight chance you want to see that heater in the flesh, it is in the Gents visitor's loo at Southern Antiques Centre, Princes Highway, Carlton - next block up from Kogarah Oval. It is still connected to the water but doesn't work.

at Southern Antiques Centre

Appropriate location for it, too.

Oh this post revived some memories. One year out of high school I was reading meters in Eastern Kentucky, where the stories of moonshine and families shooting it out really happened. These were some very isolated communities for inland portions of America where I had to use a boat during normal weather to get to some places, drive up creeks, walk suspension bridges, and climb mountains to get those numbers.

Reasons for inaccessibility there included packs of dogs, attack roosters, attack cats, hostile homeowners (sometimes armed), houses that fell off of mountains, locked gates, venomous snakes, and on several occasions wasps.

And a lot of interesting stories.