A small hobby of mine is antique light switches and outlets. It’s been a lifelong interest of mine, going back to my first encounter with vintage electronics. A neighbor of mine had an old cathedral radio in his living room, and he noticed it had caught my eye. He said that it still worked, and told me to plug it in so we could listen to it. Being that it was an old house (you could see where it had gas light fixtures at one point), it had an older, unusual outlet near the radio and my 5 year old mind could not figure out how to plug the radio in. I remember it looking like this:

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Vintage-New-Box-NOS-Tandem-Parallel-Electrical-Outlet-Rare-Antique-Electrical-/00/s/NzY4WDEwMjQ=/$%28KGrHqRHJC4E7BcvhWyTBO3fR4ut8!~~60_3.JPG

That day launched two of my hobbies. I remember the push button switches on the walls of my house, and an old round one by the basement stairs that sparked and made a snap when you rotated it.

Since then I’ve amassed a collection of vintage wiring devices – especially the early ones that predated the standard 3 prong outlets and flip light switches. It’s amazing the sheer variety that was out there in the early days – many different and incompatible types of plugs and outlets, and various unique ways of turning lights on and off. It’s something most of us would ignore, but I can’t help noticing those small details when I am in an older building.

I see that Hoosick Falls has a population of 3400 or so, and less than 20 radio amateurs.

I could find no mention of Hoosick Falls Radio and Electrical Parts Mfg. Co, Inc. Maybe they were bought out by Leviton (which I like to pronounce as leave-it-on).

check out www.electrical-contractor.net
forums there cover this sort of thing, got lots of interesting material
I have similar odds and ends of old electrical stuff
I am partial to antique round surface mount light switches... use them all over for lots of stuff.

I have a copy of the 1934 Westinghouse Electric Parts Catalog that is wonderful reading. They list all of the different Mazda lamps, street lighting equipment, push-button light switches, etc, etc, etc. It's such fun to look through...

One of the latest advances in lighting at the time of printing was the new Mercury Vapor lighting fixture for use in factories.

I found the catalog in an abandoned building less than one week before it burned in a huge spectacular fire that took out some major riverfront businesses here.

I'm another one that likes old lighting equipment.

I've got some older switches some are push button some are toggle. One of my toggle switches came from the basement of the house I grew up in, and that is either a very early one or a very high current one as it's made of ceramic and has these HUGE contacts that make a LOUD click and a big spark if the plate is removed for one to see it. At some point the plate was removed for a few days for some reason, and with all those exposed voltages and the sparking it made I was afraid to touch it.

I've got some older switches some are push button some are toggle. One of my toggle switches came from the basement of the house I grew up in, and that is either a very early one or a very high current one as it's made of ceramic and has these HUGE contacts that make a LOUD click and a big spark if the plate is removed for one to see it. At some point the plate was removed for a few days for some reason, and with all those exposed voltages and the sparking it made I was afraid to touch it.

There are 2 push button switches beside my front door that are original to the house. When I rewired the 1924 house, I pulled new wires and reinstalled these switches. One is for the porch light, and the other operates a ceiling fan.

While I had the switches out, I took them apart, and cleaned them up like new.

The switch on my furnace is an old ceramic shell toggle switch like what you describe. Also rebuilt.

I'm looking for more pushbutton switches and wallplates. I'd like to replace some others in the house, too.

Here is one I've been trying to figure out for years:
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x293/bgadow/2007_0717Image0006.jpg
Our shop, which was built around 1950, used nothing but these. My father would just bend one prong of everything he bought, but when I started working for him I replaced them all with standard grounded sockets. Why would they make them like that? I could understand if it were DC, but why for 120vac?

I have a bunch of old preheat fluorescent light fixtures out of a factory that have plugs like these in your picture. Maybe this was an industrial standard?

I'm interested in old devices also. I have an ancient rotary wall snap switch and some ceramic body toggles and some knob-and-tube stuff. I've been in some basements in old houses where the first wiring devices persist, two-wire knob-and-tube and ceramic fixtures with exposed terminals.

Here is one I've been trying to figure out for years:
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x293/bgadow/2007_0717Image0006.jpg
Our shop, which was built around 1950, used nothing but these. My father would just bend one prong of everything he bought, but when I started working for him I replaced them all with standard grounded sockets. Why would they make them like that? I could understand if it were DC, but why for 120vac?

Back in the house I grew up in there was one newer (the house was built in the 30's-40's, but this outlet and a couple of other things were from the 70's-80's) outlet in the dining room that was a hybrid between what you have there and a normal outlet being that it could accept both kinds of plugs. The only thing I saw with the odd plug was a sander or some such that the folks who refinished our floors used. I believe that that outlet may have had it's own fuse. The refinishers also had some thing that I believe ran on 240V as they also had to open the fuse box an patch in with clip leads. :eek:

I've seen knob and tube wiring before....The most memorable occasion was in the second floor of an antique shop in Kentucky where the wiring fed some of the oldest bulbs I've seen in person. New wiring and lighting had been added, but they left the old stuff in there.......Was that ever cool to see.

Brian, that right-angled outlet is so odd! I've seen 240 service with the right angled blades, but those are all grounded. Looking through my NEMA books, even the older ones, show nothing like it.

The blades are oriented like a modern 20 amp, 240 volt outlet--less ground, of course. Whereas a 120 volt, 20 amp outlet (the kind many of us have in our kitchens) can accept either a common 15 amp plug with its vertical blades or a 20 amp plug that has its left blade in horizontal plane, the 240 volt version is mirror image, preventing any 120 volt plug from being inserted. It's odd then that anybody would bother with them on a 120 volt circuit. I recall the locking-style outlets being fairly common in old industrial installations around here, but there's an obvious practicality to that. I don't get installing an odd outlet just to be odd.

Brian, that right-angled outlet is so odd! I've seen 240 service with the right angled blades, but those are all grounded. Looking through my NEMA books, even the older ones, show nothing like it.

The Hubbell website shows a device like that, but not in a duplex. They still make a lot of non-NEMA devices, both plugs and recepticals.

I have an old Bryant catalog from the 80s. There were indeed 20A 120V non-grounded outlets made in the past. In the 80s Bryant (Westinghouse's wiring device division) made them as "replacement only". I should find it and scan some pages.

Here is one I've been trying to figure out for years:
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x293/bgadow/2007_0717Image0006.jpg
Our shop, which was built around 1950, used nothing but these. My father would just bend one prong of everything he bought, but when I started working for him I replaced them all with standard grounded sockets. Why would they make them like that? I could understand if it were DC, but why for 120vac?

Found it! It's a NEMA 2-20 outlet, 20A at 230V non grounded
Will post catalog pages and NEMA chart tonight.
Some shops would use strange plugs as a lame attempt
To reduce tool theft, maybe that was the logic at
Your father's shop. Or maybe it was 230V originally.

At my parents house are 120-volt receptacles that both terminals have a T-shaped contact to them...
they can accept a plug with the blades both turned 90 degrees like this -- --
One time I actually found a plug with these type blades and wired it up just as a novelty.

My folks ~1950 house was full of those. I assume they were rated 15 amps. They would seem to defeat the purpose of having specialized 20 amp receptacles considering they accepted anything that didn't have a ground prong.

Very interesting! I knew somebody would know. The place was originally a farm store/Case tractor dealership. Anything is possible.

I have a small selection of oddballs in a bucket upstairs. Wish I could put more of them to work. My mother/stepfather live in a very nice house, about 100 years old, with some nice electrical touches. My favorite detail is how the closet lights are wired to come on when you open their doors.

Here's some on-topic stuff
the surface mount devices are the ones I like having around.

At my parents house are 120-volt receptacles that both terminals have a T-shaped contact to them...
they can accept a plug with the blades both turned 90 degrees like this -- --
One time I actually found a plug with these type blades and wired it up just as a novelty.

In the VERY early days of electicitry, plugs were not yet standardized, and both types of plugs were used. The T slot receptacles, and the first one in this thread (which is another design of the same intent), were meant to accomodate both types of plug.

I have an old B&H movie projector with the uncommon style of plug.

When I bought my house, there was a surface mounted light switch on the wall. The room was wallpapered in the 1960's, and when I looked really close, I discovered that the wire used was lamp cord, and the wires were neatly papered over and covered. After I turned off the power to the circuit at the (then) fuse box, I pulled the wires loose from the wallpaper. They ran up and across the ceiling to the light fixture, and there were 2 splices in the wires... I think someone used a couple of extension cords to make this connection. :nono:

What I love, is that the inspector missed this when I bought the house. :thumbsdn:

I've rewired the entire house, with the exception of the knob and tube wiring in the attic, now, and the K & T wiring is on its own 15 amp breaker. The only things running on the old wiring now is a couple of ceiling fans.

In the VERY early days of electicitry, plugs were not yet standardized, and both types of plugs were used. The T slot receptacles, and the first one in this thread (which is another design of the same intent), were meant to accomodate both types of plug.

I have an old B&H movie projector with the uncommon style of plug.

I also have several B&H projectors. I know what you mean.

I recently saw a house for sale that had several Edison screw plugs in the walls at the floor. They were disconnected, but still there. If the sale happens, I'll pull them and post pictures of them.

I like old wiring. My house is from 1962, and has a 100A service. Many of the houses from this era have 60A services, which insurance requires upgraded. So I'm lucky I get to keep my old wiring for now. I've found a few butcher jobs over the years. but not too many. The last one was the dryer receptacle. I removed it to tap into the 230V, so I could use 230V in the garage - discovered there was no junction box, just an outlet mounted directly to the plywood wall of the laundry room. The original octagonal junction box looked like it had been removed when the original dryer was replaced with one requiring a plug and socket.

I like old wiring. My house is from 1962, and has a 100A service. Many of the houses from this era have 60A services, which insurance requires upgraded. So I'm lucky I get to keep my old wiring for now. I've found a few butcher jobs over the years. but not too many. The last one was the dryer receptacle. I removed it to tap into the 230V, so I could use 230V in the garage - discovered there was no junction box, just an outlet mounted directly to the plywood wall of the laundry room. The original octagonal junction box looked like it had been removed when the original dryer was replaced with one requiring a plug and socket.

The 100A ruling came into effect with the 1959 NEC. Regarding the dryer recepticle, the tombstone style 30 & 50A recepticle didn't require a junction box. The back part of the recepticle had a KO on the back or bottom for direct entry of the cable or BX. Also the code allowed the use of the neutral as the equipment ground. The 2008 code prohibits this practice.

The 100A ruling came into effect with the 1959 NEC. Regarding the dryer recepticle, the tombstone style 30 & 50A recepticle didn't require a junction box. The back part of the recepticle had a KO on the back or bottom for direct entry of the cable or BX. Also the code allowed the use of the neutral as the equipment ground. The 2008 code prohibits this practice.


* I should mention I'm in Canada. CEC is a bit different than NEC, but they seem to get more similar with each revision. NAFTA, etc. We had 60A services into the early 60s (air conditioning very rare and not needed in most houses here - honestly 60A would probably still be enough for my house)

Also, even the original 1962 dryer feed has a separate neutral - we've always had 4 prong dryer plugs. The outlet is bakelite on a metal plate, and needs a 4 5/16th square box.

My home had a 60 amp service until I upgraded to 100 amps. The power company came and ran a new tri-plex line from the street pole to the house, and made the connections to my new drop, and installed the meter and locked it. This was all done after the inspector came and OK'd it all.

Then, I went with gas kitchen appliances, water heater, furnace, and dryer. I use very little power, except when the central A/C is on, which is most of the summer.

Hello we live in a house that still has knob and tube mixed with 1960s rewire and current wiring when I bought this house it was asis with no inspection. one day a few years back it was in the summer the lights kept flashing and every time I would fire up any of my old tvs the lights would dim real low so this went on for a few more days and then no lights at all, so we called the lite company and they sent somebody out and the problem was the electric line from the pole to the house was smoking real bad so they changed it out and come to find out that that line was last replaced in the 1930s now that is old wiring we upgraded to 200 amp service as far as old outlets I still use the 2 prong I have 3 still in use.. Timothy

The previous owner of my uncle's house was a secretary for an electrician with a bad reputation. When he was remodeling he tore out the old kitchen wall. Before chopping the electric range feed with an axe he pulled the main fuse block. When the blade hit there was a huge P-O-W! and blinding flash. The line had been wired direct, ahead of the main.

Here's a few of the more interesting ones I have. Clockwise from top left:

"Harvey Hubbell" T-Slot outlet. From what scant information I've been able to gather, this may be the original two-pin outlet. It came from a house in Syracuse, NY, which was built in 1905, and all evidence pointed to the outlet being original to the house. It's hard to tell from the picture, but it's non-polarized... both slots are the same size.

Top center is a GE single-gang from the early '20s. Came out of the office of an old railroad warehouse.

Top right is a surface mount rotary from the late teens/early '20s, with an interesting little window in the cover, with an indicator behind it to tell you ON/OFF.

Below that is a late '20s toggle switch... there's a little arm on the left side of it that flips up and down when you toggle the switch.

Bottom center is a late '30s/early '40s T-slot with an interesting art-deco pattern on the face of it. I wish I had a better digicam, my ancient POS Vivitar can't really capture the detail on it.

Lastly is a Bryant T-slot from the late '20s.

I'll have to do some more digging, I know I have a few more oddballs, but I haven't been able to find them yet.

That toggle switch is very similar to the one I saved from the basement of the house I grew up in (might even be the same).

The bottom center T-slot is a Arrow-Hart. I have a brand new ivory one like it. I pick up my early devices from the Habitat Restores around this area.

The Hubbell outlet appears in a 1915 electrical goods catalog, so it goes back at least that far, but the blade-style quick attachment we all know was only one of several different styles/formats shown, which makes me think it was still very new and very far from common much less universal in a time when cords still draped from the ceiling.

An original 1905 installation of a baseboard outlet is not impossible, but it would probably look like this...

Yeah, the Edison plug was much more common back then, but there were all sorts of different types of outlets competing with each other... I've heard that most electrical devices of the time were actually sold without plugs, and you'd just install your own based on whatever sort of receptacle you had. The blade outlet was definitely around then... the patent on it was granted in 1905.

As for the date of my outlet, I'm absolutely certain it's from between 1905 and 1909. The back of the plate is marked "Harvey Hubbell Inc.," in simple block letters. The company incorporated in 1905, so it can't be any earlier than that, but in 1909 they switched over to using a stylized globe logo.

The Hubbell outlet appears in a 1915 electrical goods catalog, so it goes back at least that far, but the blade-style quick attachment we all know was only one of several different styles/formats shown, which makes me think it was still very new and very far from common much less universal in a time when cords still draped from the ceiling.

An original 1905 installation of a baseboard outlet is not impossible, but it would probably look like this...

This is the plug I was referring to earlier. The house it's in was built in the 1880's. There's one of these outlets in each room on the main floor. No outlets upstairs at all, just overhead lights with pushbutton light switches.

This is the plug I was referring to earlier. The house it's in was built in the 1880's. There's one of these outlets in each room on the main floor. No outlets upstairs at all, just overhead lights with pushbutton light switches.

If you look at real old catalogues from the '20s, showing electrical products, they show a Edison base adaptor included with the straight blade plug.

Tim R, I'll keep you in mind, I got a old light fixture made out of porcelane and metal, still mounted.

173758Glad to have discovered this discussion thread! My wife and I recently purchased a circa 1827 home in the heart of a small coal-mining town in northeast PA. We bought what the locals call "both halves of a double", which means we bought both sides of a side-by-side duplex. The right side of the duplex has 1970s-era wiring, but retains many of what we believe to be the original early 1900s light fixtures, including dangling penant lights in the closets with pull-chains or turnkeys on the bulb sockets, wall sconces with twist-knobs, and what would have been very-modestly-priced-in-their-day ceiling fixtures in the parlor, living room and bedrooms that use wall switches. (The photo is of the living room looking into the dining room.) Unfortunately--from the perspective of those of us who appreciate period things--the wall switches that operate the classic ceiling fixtures are modern plastic toggle switches. We'd like to convert them to something more appropriate for the era that the ceiling fixtures come from. Double push-button wall switches have been suggested, but we're not entirely convinced that they're from a period old enough to be appropriate for the fixtures. What are your thoughts about the appropriate wall switches to use?

Mitch,

Those look like 1920's lights, so I think pushbutton switches would fit those boxes and look authentic. I have surface-mounted raceway on walls. This and twist-switches in my 1867 house that was wired in 1922. I will post pictures.

My 1924 house only had outlets in the baseboards when I got it. No metal boxes behind the outlets.
Rewired in 1986. It had the original service drop from the street, and original knife switch and cartridge fuses and plug fuses. It was lovely work, and I've been able to keep it in the attic, as it was all in good condition. I added a ground wire and boxes at each of the ceiling light locations, and use this circuit today with ceiling fans on a 15 amp breaker.

The rest of the OEM wiring in the house is gone, now.

EDIT: I dont have alzheimers. I yacked up my wiring on the first page or so of this thread, too.

My house was built in the 1850s. It has been renovated countless times over the years. The only old-timey devices left are the ceramic light fixtures in the basement. One of which is kind of ornate, and takes the small-base light bulb (like night-light size). I have since bought some second-hand vintage fixtures to try to add a little character back to this place...

I uncovered some floor-outlets when I pulled up some unfortunate carpet in the dining room. They were disconnected and in pretty bad shape, so I just left them there and ran my new subfloor over them.

The house I had before this one was from 1916, and it had tons of cool old stuff. Rotary switches, push-buttons, knob and tube, chandeliers, cast-iron fixtures, it even had a cool newel-post light on the staircase!

The use of pushbutton style switches (with brass wall plates) now dates back over 100 years. So yes, they'd look great and be perfectly period correct there.

The use of pushbutton style switches (with brass wall plates) now dates back over 100 years. So yes, they'd look great and be perfectly period correct there.

They're making reproduction pushbutton switches like you're refering to. There was such a demand for them. Some smaller firm started making them. They had to submit samples for U/L approval. I think they're using mother-of- pearl for the on button, like they used to.:yes:

Some of the cheaper ones just painted the on button inset red....

On the subject of the push-button switches, I bought my house from my grandparents estate, so I've been around this house since the 1950's. One of the two push-button switches at the front door was unable to be pressed, and therefore, unused for about 40 years, until I took the switches out of the wall and cleaned them up. The broken one wasn't broken. Someone aparently tried to push both buttons at once, and jammed one. I took the switch apart, and reassembled it, and it works like new. Growing up around here, the broken switch just didnt work, and my grandad just pushed the wires up into the attic, and papered over the ceiling hole. So, there was never a ceiling light in the living room until I bought the place.

You guys might like this:

I bought my house as-is, of course. I fully intended to rewire the house from the beginning.

One afternoon, I was sitting in a chair beside one of the original wall outlets. I knew the plug itself was very old... black and ceramic. The lamp that was plugged into it flickered a time or two and went out. I heard the outlet sizzle. I jumped up and ran to the fuse box, and pulled the plug fuses... all 4 of them. Went back to the outlet, and started to take the screw out that held the brass wallplate on... ZZZAAAAAPPPP!! I got hit with a nice 120V!! When I recovered, I looked in the fuse box and found pennies behind each plug fuse in the box!!! This explained all the space heaters running all the time, especially when my grandmother got more feeble, and never blowing a fuse!!

I remove the pennies once I had pulled the main fuses, and then checked to be sure the power was really off!!! I fixed the wall outlet, and never blew a plug fuse in the next year I used the original wiring. Like I said previously, most of the knob and tube was in good shape. The stuff coming up from the basement to the outlets was basically cooked and the insulation would flake off the wires if you touched it.

Grandma was very lucky! An acquaintance from years back whose house a lot us visited frequently had a panel full of 30 amp plug fuses. I knew very well what a bad idea this was (I suspect she bought the house with them in there) but I never spoke up about it. I think I figured I'd be dismissed as obsessing over the kind of things only a nerd obsesses over.

About a year and a half later an electrical fire gutted the house in the middle of the night. Fortunately the only fatality was the cat.