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Posted By: Admin More Old Stuff!! - 11/22/05 10:06 PM
More old stuff from HCE727:

An old carbon fused telephone block:

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Posted By: Hemingray Re: More Old Stuff!! - 11/22/05 11:53 PM
wow, Like the old edison socket. where'd you get that one? looks unused
Posted By: HCE727 Re: More Old Stuff!! - 11/23/05 12:39 AM
I don't remember where I picked that up. It is in good shape, the screw schell is like brand new.
Posted By: yaktx Re: More Old Stuff!! - 11/23/05 04:10 AM
Centura!

I've seen these before, didn't know what to call them. Do they fit a "Decora" (GFCI) plate? The paint shield is a good idea. [Linked Image]

I have one of those Edison-base receptacles too, although not of the never-used variety. Got it at an antique shop.

You know, "radio, lamp, bell, and telephone wiring" is not the same as "all inside wiring"! [Linked Image]
Posted By: Hemingray Re: More Old Stuff!! - 11/23/05 07:08 AM
I see something distinct on the center contact of that screw socket. looks like it's made by Hubbell.
Posted By: HCE727 Re: More Old Stuff!! - 11/23/05 01:58 PM
The socket and plate are made by Bryant Elect. Co.
Posted By: mamills Re: More Old Stuff!! - 11/23/05 02:52 PM
When I was a student in high school (all too many years ago, alas) The church I attended (built in 1926) was full of these edison sockets, complete with brass plates, most of which had been slopped over with several layers of paint. There was also a very noticeable absence of ordinary 2 wire duplex (or single) receptacles. I think this used to be the common way of connecting portable equipment (lamps, fans, irons, etc.), by using a device which had a screw shell with two wires extending from it, spliced to the power cord of the equipment. I guess if one of these wall sockets was not within easy reach, you could unscrew a light bulb from a nearby ceiling fixture and connect there instead. [Linked Image]

Electrical safety has made some significant advances since that time...

Mike (mamills)
Posted By: Hemingray Re: More Old Stuff!! - 11/23/05 04:40 PM
oh ok. It just looked like the hubbell symbol to me for some reason
Posted By: SvenNYC Re: More Old Stuff!! - 11/23/05 05:56 PM
Well, considering that Hubbell now owns Bryant.... I guess you were close. [Linked Image]
Posted By: Lostazhell Re: More Old Stuff!! - 11/23/05 06:28 PM
Centura... That's what those are called..

The Orange Co courthouse has these all over the place, I thought they were just some funky decora device I'd never seen before that had a ridge between the 2 outlet openings.. (Well, I guess they ARE a funky decora device when it comes down to it LOL)

I've got some old Bryant toggle switches that I pulled from a house dating back to the era of the edison base outlet (1927) but all the outlets in this house were regular NEMA 1-15 or 2-15 (the T slots) made by Arrow Hart.

When did use of the edison base outlets seem to end? I've worked on houses and buildings dating around turn of the century and have yet to come across one here.

Randy
Posted By: yaktx Re: More Old Stuff!! - 11/24/05 01:30 AM
Flush Edison-base wall receptacles such as this one were probably never all that common. Most residences would not have had wall receptacles at all before the late'20s--if you needed to plug something in, you used a "cap and base". It would have been a fancy house indeed that had wall receptacles before T-slots became common.

I'm not sure what year these were banned definitively, but they were increasingly discouraged throughout the '30s and seem to have disappeared entirely by the '40s. My '36 GE Supply catalog does not list them. T-slots seem to have been the standard in the '30s, as there were probably at one time almost as many tandem plugs as parallel.

The fourth edition of the American Electrician's handbook (1936) shows an illustration of a parallel-blade (now NEMA 1-15) plug cap and base:

Quote
Attachment plugs were formerly made in a variety of designs. In general, a plug of each different design required a correspondingly-designed receptacle to engage it. Almost endless confusion resulted. But now, largely through the efforts of Electrical Merchandising, the Standard plug cap with parallel blades (Fig. 9E) is almost universally employed.
--SNIP--
In general, only Edison-screw-plug receptacles (Fig. 9G) or standard parallel-blade plug receptacles (Fig. 9H), should be used in ordinary interior wiring installations. This is recommended to insure that the standard attachment plugs, shown in Figs. 9E and 9F may be used in the receptacles.
Posted By: Admin Re: More Old Stuff!! - 11/26/05 05:24 AM
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Sorry the image isn't better, but here is an interesting "plug cap and base" that is neither parallel nor tandem. The base is porcelain, the cap is "composition", and the manufacturer is identified as "C-H", which must be either Cutler-Hammer or Crouse-Hinds (actually I am pretty sure it is Cutler-Hammer). I think these were called "loop-prong" devices, since the '36 GE Supply catalog shows an adaptor that goes from this to a T-slot, and uses this name.

I remember seeing these in a pre-1910 catalog, and the advantage claimed was that the cord could be yanked from any direction and the plug would pull out without damage. But look at the exposure of those contacts!
Yikes!

-yaktx
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Posted By: zorinlynx Re: More Old Stuff!! - 11/27/05 06:32 PM
I actually remember old cartoons (could have been Tom and Jerry) that depicted wall-mounted edison sockets. They were a convenient comedic device, because it was easy to insert Tom's tail into the outlet and make him light up like a bulb. [Linked Image]

It's amazing how basic safety wasn't even considered in electrical designs back then. I mean, using a light bulb socket as a regular outlet? Some kid could stick his finger in it easily and.. ouch! At least that explains why they didn't last very long; after a few people got hurt folks realized a new outlet design was necessary; light bulb sockets would no longer do!

-Z
Posted By: wa2ise Re: More Old Stuff!! - 11/27/05 10:21 PM
I thought that some of these edison screw outlets would have been for use as fuseholders. Say you had a 20 amp branch circuit, and you could create a 15 amp sub-circuit by connecting the 20amp circuit to the center prong, and the 15 amp starts at the shell. Probably was never code to do that, though....

Another time I ran across some edison base fuses, and thought it was a strange kind of lightbulb. We had breakers in the house. I was 7. No, I didn't try them out in a lamp.... Think my father told me that they wern't light bulbs.
Posted By: mamills Re: More Old Stuff!! - 11/28/05 02:27 AM
wa2ise:
The old church I referred to above had several rooms in which there was an edison socket (with a single receptacle plate, rather than the hinged brass one) about seven feet off the floor, near the door to the room. Unscrew the 30 amp fuse [Linked Image], the room light goes out. Seemed really odd, since there were also a pair of large fuse boxes (those really old ones with the exposed busses and knife switches) in the boiler room at the rear of the building.

Yes, about 99% of the fuses in these panels were 30 amp, and if I remember correctly, the conductors were only no. 14 or 12 awg.

No fires...yet.

Mike (mamills)
Posted By: SvenNYC Re: More Old Stuff!! - 11/28/05 04:04 PM
Yaktx said:

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the cap is "composition",

What exactly is "composition"? Is it some kind of hard rubber or....?

And boy would I love to get my hands on the guy who invented these "handle-less" plug-caps. [Linked Image]

[Linked Image from hudsonscustommachining.com]
http://www.hudsonscustommachining.com/plug.ge.1.jpg
http://www.hudsonscustommachining.com/plug.rodale.1.jpg

Only way to get those suckers out of a light-socket without getting bitten is to yank on the cord. And I'm sure that's not too healthy for the wires.

Was it too much trouble to mold a short tube-like extension into the plug body? I've seen most other plug manufacturers do that.

*end rant* [Linked Image]
Posted By: wa2ise Re: More Old Stuff!! - 11/29/05 02:14 AM
If you put the "underwriters' knot inside those plugs, yanking on the cord might work. But most outlets didn't grab that well anyway.
Posted By: yaktx Re: More Old Stuff!! - 11/30/05 12:25 AM
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What exactly is "composition"? Is it some kind of hard rubber or....?

Excellent question!

"Composition", in the days before modern plastics, was any amalgam of various insulating materials, usually rubber, plant fibers such as wheat straw or cork, minerals such as mica or asbestos, all ground up and mixed together. There were undoubtedly hundreds of varieties of substances all going under this name, and they were not used solely for electrical materials. Dice, chess pieces, inexpensive tableware, toys, tourist souvenirs, you name it.

If it looks and feels sort of like hard rubber, but you can see fibers, it's probably "composition".
Posted By: jfwayer Re: More Old Stuff!! - 11/30/05 07:57 PM
Ah, guys you don't get it, they are PLUGS, not UNPLUGS. Why would you ever want to unplug something?
Posted By: Dawg Re: More Old Stuff!! - 10/28/06 04:10 PM
Wow....so these are what edison sockets are eh? So this is what I hear about when folks claimed they could insert a light bulb and it would light up....

I guess in those days all appliances had the light bulb screw style plug and then eventually the "screw in adapter" to convert the socket to a quick disconnect style receptacle came about....and then one day duplex receptacles were invented....?
Posted By: Admin Re: More Old Stuff!! - 10/29/06 04:26 AM
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Here's a screw-in plug. It's a Bryant, and is on a "Radioopticon" postcard projector. The stamped rating is 660W 250V.


They come from the era where you were more likely to find a light socket than an outlet.

- n1ist
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Posted By: napervillesoundtech Re: More Old Stuff!! - 10/29/06 05:55 AM
Hey, If you can, post a pic of that old projector, it could be kinda cool!
Posted By: kale Re: More Old Stuff!! - 12/26/06 11:55 PM
From http://www.hubbell-wiring.com/History.asp

After viewing a janitor trying to clean behind some electrically-operated penny arcade games, Hubbell noted the tedious process required: that of disconnecting and reconnecting the post and wire connections in order to pull the equipment away from the wall. Hubbell's idea was to design a product with individual wires attached in the proper sequence and correct polarity, thus allowing the user to connect and disconnect to the power supply in the wall. His "separable plug and socket" design took shape and was submitted to the patent office in Washington, D.C. One of the most successful constructions of the patent is the duplex receptacle, still found everywhere that power is used.
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