I've described this house in this forum before, but only now am I getting around to sorting through my pics. I'd like to share some with you.

This 1957 house has a surface-mounted meter on the outside. The service wires go straight out the back of the meter pan into the wall. These pictures show what's on the inside face of the wall.

The cable - simple 3-wire cloth-covered Romex - pierces the wood sheathing without any bushing, and is anchored by a pair of bent-over nails. The cable passes through the rockwool insulation and runs inside the wall, between the vapor barrier and the drywall. It is directly under the 1/2" drywall, and runs along a stud.

This wall was covered by 1/4" plywood paneling, held in place by 1-1/4" brads. That is, 3/4" of each nail passed through the drywall, and had the potential to hit the cable. With the nails spaced all over the field - not just near the studs- it's something of a miracle that they missed all the wiring- let alone the service.

I call the cable the 'service' as there is NO disconnect of fuse until after the wire has run from the meter, up the wall, across the ceiling, and down another wall to what was originally a 6-breaker FPE panel. One might say I have some objections to this rendering of the 'nearest the point of service entry' code requirement.

Here are the pics:

[Linked Image from i143.photobucket.com]

[Linked Image from i143.photobucket.com]

[Linked Image from i143.photobucket.com]