We were watching an old 1934 Gable movie and they had a switch on the wall with two wires coming down that looked like K&T but it was a surface run.

I haven't see that movie yet but someday I will watch it and I know few very old movies they did use the T&K format and some modern movies they used them for the props { few case a working props }

Merci,
Marc

Greg:

Conductors in 'loom'? Maybe?

Years back, in an old structure that was an American Legion Hall & Offices, the second floor area was all K&T. The surface twist style switches had wooden molding with grooves routed for the conductors. I fondly remember hunting for a fuse box, only to have one of the senior members say 'sonny, it's located in the baseboard right here!' He was 100% right on, two circuits, four fuses block, custom 'box' lined with 1/2" asbestos (the real thing) board with the baseboard neatly mitered to hide it.

The movie was "It happened one night" and the scene is the first motel they stayed in, the switch by the door. If I see it again I will get a screen shot.

In Europe this was certainly common practice, even though in finished living areas usually twisted lamp cord was used rather than individual conductors. The latter was commonly used in unfinished and possibly damp areas. The Austrian Parliament is still wired like this to some extent, I saw pictures in a newspaper report about the state of the building (of course this wiring method is confined to the non-public areas, but it was also common in residential basements and the like well into the 1920s). In Germany, exposed wiring on knobs was apparently outlawed in 1910, in other countries it remained in use much longer. The wooden "conduit" trim was commonly used in the UK and Ireland and can still be found in some older buildings (I think I posted pictures of it in a Belfast hostel here a few years ago).

Here are a few example pics I found on a Swedish web site:
http://www.elmuseum.se/viewimage.cgi?images/skomakarlampa_24v2.jpg

http://www.elmuseum.se/viewimage.cgi?donerat/joakimharaldsson/kalmar2.jpg

Even before knob & tube, ther was electricity.

There were receptacles and switches made for just what you describe- to be set atop surface-run wires. Often these wires would run just under the final plaster coat. maybe an inch apart. Another trick was to run them behind door moldingas and baseboards.

This was strange looking because there were 2 wires, insulated I suppose, running an inch or so apart with a porcelain insulator holding them apart and a round switch below that. I am really mad at myself that I didn't get a screen shot.

Greg,
Is this the scene?
http://www.eeweems.com/capra/_imagery/_it_happened_night/it_happened_470.jpg

Yup

Greg:
Nope, never came upon that method of K&T.