Photos Courtesy of Joe Tedesco

Thanks Joe!

They'd sure be the low bidder, and would probably be awarded the contract.

"Electric fixtures as low as 70 cents"

I just payed $70 for a light bulb...S

Electure:

Why 70$ for a lightbulb? I get 4 packs of 130 volt/60 watt Type As for a dollar .

Wow....neat stuff....any idea when these advertisements were printed?

Wow....neat stuff....any idea when these advertisements were printed?

The fine print in the second ad reads, "Prices of Electric Lamps Reduced-- Effective April 15, 1914."

A significant aspect of these ads is that they were placed by an electric utility (in St. Louis, I think), rather than by a contractor.

This was an era when power companies were especially eager to "build load", and the sale and installation of lights and appliances - and the wiring to supply them - was an important means of doing that.

I would be interested in learning whether the actual work was done by utility employees or a contractor.

Ahh, thanx for pointing that out...dunno why I didn't see that....

I gotta wonder what the finished work looked like when these guys came out and wired your home....I'd guess probably conduit and externally mounted junction boxes on an already completed home?

Also they say in one of the ads "4 ceing outlets and one wall outlet"....I know alot of older homes I've seen will have only 1 outlet per room....I wonder if that's why?

One receptacle per room was also very common in the U.K. when homes were wired in the 1920s/30s.

Sometimes the wires were fished inside the walls.....or hidden behind wooden strips (like the wiremold raceways we use nowadays).

I guess you could always do what some still do to this day: Staple #16AWG lamp-cord to the wall....and use surface mount bakelite sockets.

Wow! $17.95 and 12 months to pay.

What would that be in today's dollars?

Nice ads, obviously the utilties were pushing this, but they had to. What's the point of generating and networking electricity if there are no end users?

I just entered the amount on a site and it says that it is worth $335.00, thats cheap to say the least. Here is the site- http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

Gee we should figure out what the going rate for electrical work was in the 70s and she what a per hour charge should be now

I've uploaded a four-page General Electric watthour-meter advertisement from the May 13, 1957 issue of "Electrical World". The cool thing about this ad is the wonderfully evocative artwork (reminiscent of Edward Hopper) showing a utility executive gazing out his office window at a nighttime cityscape far below, smoke curling from his cigarette as he ponders how to meter all of those kilowatts. But is that *really* what's on his mind?

This one needs a soundtrack; I'm thinking maybe a mournful jazz sax solo?

I've posted the ad in two sizes. The smaller one is a good fit for a 1024 x 768 screen resolution:
http://long-lines.net/other/electrical/ElectricalWorld-1957-05-13/099-102s.html

And a larger version:
http://long-lines.net/other/electrical/ElectricalWorld-1957-05-13/099-102.html

What's on his mind is making money for his company by finding an effective way to meter this usage. He sees a jackpot outside his office window. That's what businesses are supposed to do. That's what executives are hired to ensure.

Anyone who finds fault with a company making money, well....... I am not going to even go there.

Oh...you want a good sax tune to go with that ad???

2 words...Harlem Nocturne.

And I'll answer in one word: PERFECT!

Check out this interpretation, by Wayne Land on the alto sax:
http://www.musicplay.com/piano/music/Harlem%20Nocturne.mp3

At last - an affordable nuclear reactor that's compact enough to fit in your garage! Only $55,000 plus shipping:
http://coldwar-c4i.net/EW-1957-01-28/059.html

I'll bet that quite a few permits were required for that, even back then. Today, such a device would be unthinkable. It doesn't take much to irradiate the whole neighborhood.

In inflation adjusted thems the Job would work out to be about $355 in today's dollars. The work in attic would have been knob & tube, and the wires in the walls would have been run into induvudual braided looms and fished through the hollow spaces.

Yes, I'm sure there are a lot of federal, state and local agencies that would have something to say about it. The NRC would probably regulate both the operation of the reactor and access to the enriched uranium fuel. Then there are the various environmental agencies. And of course you'd want to check with your friendly insurance agent to make sure your homeowner's policy covers the occasional nuclear mishap!

Actually, on another list it was pointed out that the LR reactor design is quite safe, because if it overheats, vapor bubbles will form in the fuel solution, which reduce its density and slow the reaction.

Check out this article about an engineer in Alaska who wants in install a cyclotron in his home, to produce radioisotopes for medical diagnostics:
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2005/12/69726

Ghost307, thanks again for suggesting Harlem Nocturne. I'm going to include it on the web page with the ad; that music really sets the mood!

It turns out the painter, Robert Lavin, was quite a prolific and well-regarded artist. Here are some links:

http://www.austingalleries.com/artist_bio.asp?ID=77

http://www.austingalleries.com/artist_gallery.asp?ID=77

http://www.fulltable.com/vts/aoi/l/lavin/k.htm

http://www.afapo.hq.af.mil/Presentation/Common/artistsdetail.cfm?Letter=L&value=365

http://www.illustration-house.com/current/A31/a31_154.html