Does anyone know of good sources of information that cover the changes in materials and wiring methods used over the years?
While I'm interested in how and why it used to be done in the old days all over the country and world for that matter, I especially would like to know what they had to work with and what rules they were bound by in my own neck of the woods over the last 100 years or so.
In Chico, CA, as I find myself prowling around 75-100 year old houses looking at K&T, cloth and paperwound cable, early plastic insulated cloth covered cable, and several different eras of plastic sheathed NM all grafted together, I wonder what the trade was like when the house was first wired and what it was like during each subsequent remodel.
Of course I then tell the owner I won't add the 800W worth of cans they want unless I first get rid of some of the old stuff and then pull a new circuit or two from a reasonably modern panel.
