ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area something fun

I once did a service call at a house built pre-1940.
The owner was having trouble with a cieling fixture, in the hall way, switched from both ends.
After disecting the wiring in half of this house, I finally figured out how the original electrician wired this 3-way switching.
A few of the old timers I've talked with over the years called it a Chicago Hook-up.
Anyone here know what that is?
We're talking knob and tube days ok?

10 points to the first correct answer.

How about 10 points to whoever can find the thread where we discussed this and the different variations.

-Hal

Sorry,
As I said in one of my other recent posts, I'm new here. I don't know what has been discussed in the recent past.

No problem, matter of fact it can be good to rehash this stuff every once and a while. Other new people may not have seen it either.

Thought there was an illustration in the Technical Reference Area...

-Hal

Lamplighter, welcome to the forum. Most everything under the sun has been discussed at one time or another here, but that doesn't mean we won't discuss (or argue ) it again.

Roger

Thanks guys,
I can see where the same subjects would come up every so often. The trade has a wide scope and there are almost always more than one way to get an acceptable result in the field.
Throw in the fact that there are so many members to this forum and some topics have to come up over and over.
Although, I still haven't seen anyone post the answer here. heh heh.
Just kidding.
I'll give you guys another riddle in another thread if you like.

Now I lost... Is a "Chicago" anything like a "French", or "Hollywood 3-way"??

I checked the link above and didn't see anything about the chicago hook-up however, there is a referance to a third, illegal way to make a three way system work.
I'll accept that the person who wrote about that probably knows what it is.
For those that don't here's a hint.
It is illegal and doesn't use travelers.

Check out these versions, the second one is legal, I think. These are from Coleman Electrical Graphics



or



Ronald Coleman has some very good and informative graphics on his site, check out the link below


http://home.comcast.net/~ronaldrc/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html

Roger




[This message has been edited by Roger (edited 10-18-2005).]