ECN Electrical Forum - Discussion Forums for Electricians, Inspectors and Related Professionals
ECN Shout Chat
ShoutChat
Recent Posts
Increasing demand factors in residential
by gfretwell - 03/28/24 12:43 AM
Portable generator question
by Steve Miller - 03/19/24 08:50 PM
Do we need grounding?
by NORCAL - 03/19/24 05:11 PM
240V only in a home and NEC?
by dsk - 03/19/24 06:33 AM
Cordless Tools: The Obvious Question
by renosteinke - 03/14/24 08:05 PM
New in the Gallery:
This is a new one
This is a new one
by timmp, September 24
Few pics I found
Few pics I found
by timmp, August 15
Who's Online Now
1 members (CoolWill), 250 guests, and 13 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Rate Thread
Page 1 of 2 1 2
#198815 02/05/11 02:02 AM
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 3,682
Likes: 3
Admin Offline OP
Administrator
Member
Quote
This is a letter a friend of mine found in his grandfather's papers. His grandfather was subbed out by by the power company to install the "New" Wiring jobs in a house. If you look at the date at the top of the letter, I believe it was dated 3/2/1916, and I guess they were sending out these letters to everyone that they could in order to get them to wire up their houses. Enjoy

Harold Endean

[Linked Image from electrical-photos.com]

[Linked Image from electrical-photos.com]

Admin #198820 02/05/11 11:10 AM
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 265
W
Member
A 5 room house for $12.50, I will take it!! Always neat to see stuff like this, thanks for posting it.


Jimmy

Life is tough, Life is tougher when you are stupid
Admin #198831 02/05/11 04:14 PM
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 206
G
Member
Manual typing too! Couldn't just churn out a thousand on the computer then.

Admin #198851 02/05/11 11:59 PM
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 7,381
Likes: 7
Member
Can't determine if "JPW" wants 2000 or 20,000 copies. Postage back then was .02 for a normal letter, and .01 for a post card. So the advertizing cost for the direct mail was probably between .08 and .12 total.

Nice find Harold!!


John
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 3,682
Likes: 3
Admin Offline OP
Administrator
Member
I think we have a printed ad with similar pricing.

If I find it I'll post it here.

Bill
smile

Admin #198856 02/06/11 12:54 AM
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 3,682
Likes: 3
Admin Offline OP
Administrator
Member
Found some...

A little Pricier though... smile

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

Admin #198880 02/06/11 10:15 PM
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 2,498
T
Member
I suppose they didn't type each letter - more likely they typed it onto a sheet of wax or special carbon copy paper and made a bunch of prints (some systems could produce up to 500 copies from one original I think).

It would be interesting to put those prices into perspective - what did an average worker make per week back then? If he made say $3/week, wiring a house was still quite expensive for him!

Admin #198902 02/07/11 07:52 PM
Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 64
P
Member
Lights were much nicer looking then, too. smile

Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 787
L
Member
According to this calculator (http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi)

$12.50 in 1916 is approximately $250 today.

Admin #198924 02/07/11 10:53 PM
Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 64
P
Member
I'll take that!

Page 1 of 2 1 2

Link Copied to Clipboard
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5