ACO                 A singing meter in Paddington

A call to another apartment in Paddington.   The weather was bitter and electric fires were the order of the day.  It turned out that this American couple had rented the apartment and because it was so cold they had every electric fire in the place turned on.  They became a bit worried by the whirring noise from the electrical cupboard.

It didn't take long to find the source of the noise.  The meter was a 5A one and the flat was consuming something like nine kilowatts, let us say thirty seven and a half amps.  When I called in the LEB, the inspector remembered this flat and that his last visit was to disconnect all the heating and just leave a lighting supply operative.

Someone had unofficially reconnected the heating to the lighting supply.  Not only was the meter being grossly overrun, but the lighting at 5d (old pence)  a unit, whereas the heating if properly connected would cost about three halfpence a unit.  Of course, nobody knew who had made the reconnection.  And the meter wouldn't have fallen off the wall even with the screws removed due to the gyroscopic effect!  Some mothers do 'ave 'em!