Posted 2 years ago
AnythingOb…
(1778 items)
Antique house wiring devices and stuff, that is -- here's most of my collection of such things in the cardboard box it all lives in now, after I picked out a handful of (hopefully) interesting enough on-their-own pieces that live in there too, that'll be in their own showings in the near future. :-) The cardboard box itself is the only actual 'new' (-ish) thing seen here, as I've been in process of (finally?!!) gathering all this stuff from various other smaller places/boxes/etc into it -- there's no doubt I'll keep finding more bits and pieces to add in as I keep trying to "organize" (HA?!) my in-storage stuff.
Pic 1 is the whole box, lots of "knob and tube wiring" ceramic knobs and tubes, but also some cool old switches, wall outlets, light socket parts, and related sorta crap -- none of which should likely be used with any variety of live electricity ever again. The coiled tube-looking things (also in the larger plastic bag to the side) are indeed just that -- flexible tubing (probably made of scary asbestos?!! <lol>) that was used for extra insulation when knob/tube wiring crossed over itself physically within a wall or ceiling, or otherwise might be subject to an unusual wear risk.
Pic 2 shows several old wall switches with ceramic bodies, one being a two pushbutton type. The small plastic bag in pic 3 holds a little handful of ceramic "wire nuts" -- things (now typically made of brightly colored plastic) used to connect individual wires together, these are small enough that they probably came from inside old appliances instead of inside old walls. Pic 4 also shows the pushbutton switch, along with one of a couple wall receptacles (with now strange prong configuration) that is still actually fastened to a little of its original wire and *including* its metal wall box with that coiled up extra insulation tubing.
All of this has been collected over many years, often when I've recovered it while replacing it with something safe, but also just odd bits and things that've been salvaged from construction junk piles, abandoned in place by others, or just simply disused thus available for the asking when I was in some or other basement or attic somewhere anyway... ;-)
