ECN Forum Forums Photo Discussion Forums Electrical Nostalgia Ever see anything like this?

I have this very receptacle, mint in the box!
It is an ARROW #2145 and here is the picture of it:



[This message has been edited by Webmaster (edited 05-21-2003).]

DeSoto:

Neat find!!!

Question the first: When did NPFA decide these things were "illegal"?

Question the second: Why is the cord-cap called a "GH" cap?

Were these things common or was it more of a hi-falutin' device for apartments and houses "wired for radio."

Kind of like nowadays with apartments "wired for cable" that have the neat little 75-ohm F-plug mounted on a plastic plate on the wall.

Desoto,


I agree, that is neat. I have never seen one of these recptacles and I have been in the field since 1975. The only reason I got that plug was that my ex foreman gave it to me. Now the 64 dollar question. How exactly did it work? What plugged into what?

Apparently:
The AC line connects to the bottom half as normal. The top half is the antenna, the
slanted slot being the signal, the vertical one being ground.

Oddly enough, I recently encountered such an "angle/vertical" plug & receptacle in a kitchen exhaust fan. The fan motor plugged into a receptacle mounted on the ductwork, inside the duct. Power was 115AC.
I guess that funny plug got around. I'm not that old- but I recall that the NEMA plug patterns are fairly recent, perhaps codified in the late '60's?

Don't really mean to bring this topic back up but while I was doing electrical work to my own house,, (actually my apprentice/helper) ran into the same plug in my office. The neet thing about this is that most of the wiring is still intact. On the top part of the receptacle, their was old RHW # 10 AWG attached to the Aerial side, up the wall to the attic where it was then attached to one side of an old lightning arrester (the top side) parallel (looped) to the same wire to one of the attic windows where it was just hanging their with a metal strap soldered to the end of it.
On the other terminal marked ground their was # 10 rhw running up the same wall to the attic to the bottom attachment of the lightning arrester then parallel (looped)down to the Stink Pipe Chase where it just hung to the point of my Basement 2 floors below.
Now this is where it get real iteresting.Their was an old Knob and Tube circuit that fed its own duplex receptacle about a foot away from the (radio receptacle) so their was no need to run power to the bottom half. Their was however three # 18 AWG RHW se prate conductors terminated with tape in the same device box that this (radio receptacle) was in. I also have to add that in the same room their was a met el duplex brass plate with a finished hole drilled through it that was on another receptacle. I am only guessing that over the years the plates got moved around for painting and that the plate in question was for the Radio Receptacle. I don't know where the other side of the # 18's go to as I hate doing electric work in my own house but if I was a betting man I would have to guess it was for a remote key and speaker. If that was the case then this must of been a real nicely wired house for the time. Anyway I will try to include pictures if I ever figure out how to use my camera

What would you do when VCRs were invented?

use a matching transformer?

H.P. Richter's "Wiring Simplified" 1936 edition shows a radio outlet with a double T power connection and what appear to be "meter jacks" for aerial and ground. (not banana jacks but test prod type jacks)
The 1938 edition shows the same.

The 1941 edition shows the outlet pictured in this thread.
The 1946 & 1948 editions show the same.

The 1954 edition no longer shows a radio outlet.

It does however show a "special Laundry Receptacle" stating that the 1953 code requires one in every Laundry room.
It is what we now call a NEMA 5-15 duplex.

Here is a rubber/bakelite fuse from the same time period: it is made by CLEARSITE Economy fuse & mfg co. Chicago,USA and is 20 amps @ 125 volts.


http://www.noveltyradio.com



[This message has been edited by desoto (edited 07-17-2005).]