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

[This message has been edited by Webmaster (edited 02-16-2002).]

Tell me you photoshopped that

I guess it's a 17 1/2 amp receptacle

The integral 'box divider' hints of AC / DC or other diversity included into one enclosure.......

Wow!! Shouldnt this picture be in the international forum?

I think this is an old TV/radio outlet, from the pre-cable days when almost every home had an antenna on the roof.

The bottom half is a standard 120 VAC outlet to power the set, and the upper half was connected to the 300 ohm twin lead from the roof mounted antenna. The antenna wire from the set was fitted with the strange mating plug. The box divider was to separate the LV and HV wiring inside the box.

Do we know where this receptacle came from?

Harold, can you shed some light on this??


Bill

Joe,
My ex-foreman Jim found this receptacle while he was doing work in an old house. We both believe that the upper recepatcle has to do with an antenna. The word aerial appear on the receptacle.

Mr. Hixson confirms (confidently) that is indeed for an aerial and 120V source for a radio or TV.

Look closely at the upper plug--isn't it molded/labeled 'aerial' and 'ground'?

I believe that Arrow-Hart was one producer of these. It was once common to have external connections on AM radios for a 'longwire' [outdoor/attic] antenna & 'whatever-was-handy' ground.

Couldn't see that... My monitor has a 640 x 480 max resolution...

Mhhhm,... and the bottom receptacle is labeled "250V 15A"

We found one like that and a plug at the old parsonage. Plug didn't look like 300 ohm but ???

If one side of "strange" outlet is labeled ground and/or connected to the metal fixture strap, then I would guess it was intended for an A.M. radio antenna.

The 300-ohm feeder commonly used on U.S. TVs is a balanced system and should have neither side grounded.

Resesrch has turned up some new details about the upper receptcle. It is a standard Western Union category 0.007 data connection--a/k/a telegraph key.

[This message has been edited by Bjarney (edited 05-03-2002).]

Bjarney you are right!! On the upper part of the duplex the slant pin is for the "long wire" antenna for old and/or short wave radios, and the vertical pin is the antenna system ground. These were available also as singles without the a/c power. We had one in my folks house. Since I have been a radio ham since youth, that connector fascinated me. They became obsolete when NFPA decided mains electricity and antenna connections don't mix, and can be hazardous to radios and human beings if wired backwards!

Bjarney,

So you are saying that there was a telegraph key that plugged into the upper receptacle? Was the 110 volt getting into the upper receptacle at all or were they just using it for the use of an antenna/grounding connection?

Sorry, I was joking about the telegraph. AM radio antenna and ground was the intended use. The center metal barrier was to keep things separate from the lower 120V.

Ragnar:

No. Our "typical" 110-volt receptacles and switches used to be rated for:

10A 250V/15A 125V

It's hard to see because of the globs of paint on the brown plastic.

I have a couple of these oldies at home (standard sockets, not the winking thing you see there)

Anyone have any idea when they stopped rating most devices this way? And why?

I've seen newly manufactured on-cord miniature switches and surface-mount wall switches still carrying the 250-volt/10-amp rating on the plastic shells....

Maybe the manufacturers never got around to re-casting the molds for these things.

A standard NEMA 1-15 or 5-15 plug and receptacle can carry 250 volts across it without complaining. I've done it plenty of times at home.

[This message has been edited by SvenNYC (edited 06-08-2003).]

LOL,
That's a good one Bjarney!!

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).]

deSoto:

I remember those. They were still a semi-common sight in some of the apartments I lived in as a kid in the 1980s (believe it or not).

I believe the casing is a hard rubber material, like what's used for plugs. Not bakelite plastic.

Somewhere I have one at home also from that same exact company.

We've gone full circle it seems. Current-manufacture screw-plug fuses (from Buss) are built inside white plastic housings. These used to be ceramic when I was younger.