I made a service call on a customer. The wiring serving the ckt in question was BX with rubber and cloth covered conductors with a lead jacket. (this was inside the BX or flex). I think they call this mineral cable? Does any one know when this was used. The bldg was built in the early 60s. I think this type of cable is much older. Any thoughts? Robert

I don't believe I ever saw that particular configuration, but I'd bet it was listed for wet locations. I did come across some lead sheathed two conductor cable a couple of times, but there was no armor around it.

Ages ago...an Electrician who was aged then, called it BXL. Something else to work with, huh.

I've seen it in a garage that was built (I'm guessing) in the early to mid 50's out here in So. Cali. It appears to have been manufactured this way, as the size of the flex seems too small to pull or re-pull the wire through.

I ran into it pretty frequently in homes in New Jersey in the 1970's. The homes were usually 1940's-1950's era. Yes, it was called "BX-L". My boss at the time told me that it was designed for use in damp locations.

We also ran into quite a lot of lead-sheathed direct-burial cable similar to today's "UF". It was identical except that the outer jacket was lead instead of plastic and there was no ground wire.