Lanterns/Fixtures > Antique

Ever seen the old knob & tube wiring of the 1880s - 1930s?

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Vince:
I found this interesting article about knob & tube wiring that were used from the earliest days of electricity to well into the 20th century. Take a look, it's fascinating! The article even has several pictures, including one of a socket!

Knob & tube wiring on Wikipedia .

FGS:
Oh, yeah. My brother's place has the wiring like the one on Wiki. Scary but if the building's still standing after 80 years then the wiring are still safe to use. Though not able to meet current energy demands today.

Vince:
Some older wirings are still acceptable today, but knob & tube wiring is way too old, it dates even before any electrical code existed, so there may be flaws that are dangerous (like the solder and tape instead of wire nuts).  On the wiki the light socket pictured could be dangerous because connections are exposed (no metallic box).

Newer wiring are safer. For example, my house dates from 1978 and most of the cables used are rubber-covered, however they are Romex cable, so I'd just need to replace the cables in the future.

Jace the Gull:
My grandma's house was built in 1952....the wiring is mostly consist of metalic sheathed armor wires WITHOUT grounding....however the metal sheathed can be substituted as a grounding, Junction boxes were already used at that time. in some rooms have the older 2 prong outlets there are also a lot fewer outlets so my grandpa from time to time had added some outlets on the molding of floor (external outlet kits which I have one I can post...) and regular rental cord nailed to the moldings and those new additions are simply plugged into the existing wall outlets......

Alright, I am not exactly sure what Ian thinks, but as for me and when I formally administrated another lighting page, this was not a lighting related topic, although without this we would not power lights. But again this was posted by a sub admin like me. Perhaps this topic is much better suited for the following page

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Utilitystuffhobby/

I posted a lot of pictures of older switches in this webpage....there was over 30 new uploads by me and a few members including Mister Lay (Dave L.) at the same time and Mister Lay posted some cool sound clips on the pages...plus.....I discovered that one of my switches according to Mister Lay was a rare one! Also in this group page you would be welcome to post wiring you find and all that sorts since it is Utility related, what do you guys think?

lightman64:
O yeah! My Sunday School teacher's house is from the 1930's and it has K&T wiring. Pretty scary stuff, wouldn't wanna buy a house that still has it!
Afraid something like on The Money Pit would happen!  ;D

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