ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area History of residential wiring...

Would anyone happen to know the years certain types of wire were used (i.e. Cloth, aluminum, etc.)

Don't quote me, Aluminum wiring was in the late 60s to very early 70s. Cloth Braid wiring has a long history, and mostly was taken over by TW in the late 50s early 60s.
NM cable without an EGC was actually produced in the late 30s or early 40s.
If you were to go to Google, type in the history of wire installations and you can find some good stuff.

Pierre

For aluminum building wire, AA8000-alloy wire started to replace EC1350-grade material in ~1977-78.

Note that by NEC, 1350 alloy is still permitted for type-USE cable.

A great reference is Old Electrical Wiring Maintenance and Retrofit
by David E. Shapiro. Perhaps your local library has a copy--it's out of print.

You can read the first 30 pages on the link ThinkGood provided.

The same author has also written Your Old Wiring which appear not to be out of print.

{How can you possibly need to edit something as simple as this three times???}

[This message has been edited by C-H (edited 11-28-2003).]