I was just wondering, are Paulding devices still made? If not when they were made were they considered good or junk?

A.D

I used to get their receptacles from the now-defunct Fairway Electric Supply. I always considered them to be pretty high-quality. I have quite a few of them installed and have not noticed any unusual failure rates. I even have their devices installed in my own house.

I don't think that they are still being made. I remember them being a big-time manufacturer of porcelain keyless lampholders until other manufacturers started making them out of phenolic plastic. After that, I think Paulding went by the wayside, possibly back in the late 1980's?

I never really installed Paulding devices but maybe once or twice... (I found them once , of all places, at a plumbing supply!) that was somewhere in the mid 80's..

I do remember opening one (screw together outlet) and the contacts and such weren't really any different than, say Levitons resi/light commercial outlet of the era.. In other words... It wasn't Hubbell, but it wasn't made in China either

I like the paulding devices. Somewhere in my shop is a mint (still in the box!) Paulding single 120V/15A grounding receptacle. I do have alot of ancient paulding devices, including one of their t-slot outlets. See my latest pics in Electrical Nostalgia for two of their switches.

Right on! It was actually the pictures that were posted in the Nostalgia section that twigged me to ask about them, only because they are not found here in Canada AND I did somehow manage to find and save at least 2 master cases of 20A 125V SINGLE Paulding receptacles from a dumpster behind a local electrical supplier ( along with a TON of other oddball but expen$ive devices simply tossed out because they were old / oddball stock!).
The only thing wrong with them is the lack of a CSA or
C-UL stamp.. I guess these things were brought over from the USA back when Canada did not recognize the T-slot configuration for a 20A receptacle..

A.D

I think Pauling used to have a product line called Circle F. I still see a lot of them in old work.
They seemed like a decent product to me at the time, but I think they were already struggling and in decline by the time I entered the trade in the early 1980’s, just as many other companies and the auto industry were then. I guess President Reagan’s post recession trickle down economics weren’t trickling fast enough or just came to late for them.
I seem to remember that just before Paulding disappeared a few years later, there was a big problem with their porcelain pull-chain and keyless light fixtures.
The solder that was being used to hold the leads on the lamp sockets was melting and was being blamed for causing fires. I don’t know if there was a formal recall or not, but I do remember being told to return several cases of porcelain fixtures to the supply house for exchange because of this, probably around 1984 or 1985. Maybe this was the final straw for them financially.

Circle Fs' name was changed to Sylvania Wiring Devices, then later became part of Challenger, where they are now is not known to me... Paulding,to my knowlege was a different company.

Here's three of the Paulding devices I have. (the other one is on the bench in my shop.)