“Knob and Tube”

The first adventure comes from the world of electricity. In the olden days, well at least before World War II, electricity had less of the safety features that we enjoy today. There were many less outlets in the rooms of the house, with only two conductors, and not meant to carry much power. To accomplish this, they pulled wires through the joists using a ceramic “tube”. This was intended as an insulator for when the current heated up the wire, it wouldn’t start the wood on fire. This is a good thing. Then if you wanted to have an outlet in a room, or turn a corner, etc. you’d use a “knob” and then run down the wall to the two conductor outlet.

This worked, but is not for today. In fact, it is super complicated to get a house certified with “knob and tube” wiring for homeowners insurance. They have to really have done it right and get inspected and certified. And let’s just say that this probably wouldn’t happen here.

So over the next three days we’ll be having a team of electricians out to the house to replace this old wiring with the now standard three conductor grounded outlets and some ground-fault circuits for safety. This will be our most costly and time consuming pre-move-in project, and will be a big milestone on getting ready to make this house a home.

And “One More Thing”, when you have an old ceiling open, there are even more interesting electrical things that can be found …

The transformer is a “low voltage” feed of like 14 volts, that goes through the basement and eventually out through the wall of the house! Why? The second box appears to have connected to a perhaps radio antenna, though I have not been able to follow the wires “up”. And the oddest thing is the little tool that looks like a tuning fork, with a little wavy deal in the middle, but acts like a “divining rod” tracking voltage from +/- 3 volts. I have a feeling that it is useful to know if the knob-and-tube wiring is “hot” or not, so ironically still useful for us until the end of the week. After that it’ll be more of an antique.

Next up, “Adventures in the History of Plumbing” and a furnace from 1975 …