What kind of light fixture would have been here?!

[Corsetière]

Well, I'm kind of perplexed! After removing the hideous paneling and wallpaper, I found two places for sconces in the perfect location for a pier mirror, and then I found another place that was wired for a light at approximately waist height on the wall to the right of the fireplace in the entryway! What an odd spot and height for a light! Does anyone have a theory what this might have looked like and why so low? If it helps formulate your theory, to the right of the electrical wiring is a built in bench with storage and a window above the bench.

[lovesickest]

In some old houses, the earliest electrical outlets were the screw in type - just like lightbulbs sockets. This might explain the odd location ???

Or a cheap landlord landlording with bizarre modifications ? That happens too.

[SarahFair]

You think maybe someone had a chair they read from there?

I forgot its in the entry.
I have no idea..

[1918ColonialRevival]

In some old houses, the earliest electrical outlets were the screw in type - just like lightbulbs sockets. This might explain the odd location ???

This.

Electrical outlets weren't really standardized to the two-prong receptacle until the mid to late 1920s. There were several different types of early outlets, but one of the most common types utilized the same Edison screw base that light fixtures used. I would imagine this outlet would have been placed to accommodate something sitting on a piece of furniture, such as a lamp or an electric fan.

[Don M]

How about a call button for a servant? These were often near the fireplace or doorway.

[phil]

or a radio. Note the socket.
http://torontoist.com/wp-content/upload ... gersad.jpg

rogers was the inventor of the "batteryless radio" it was the invention of radio tubes which would run ( the filaments) on AC power. this one is probably from around 1923 give or take a year or so.

radio tables were common. they were often long narrow tables and may have had compartments to store the old lead batteries. often these turn up at antique auctions and often people aren't' aware of their original purpose.

http://chestofbooks.com/crafts/popular- ... irror.html



Nowadays 60 cycle ( or hertz) power is standard in north america and 50 cycle in europe but at this time it hadn't become standardised. In the beginning some areas had DC wiring but they learned they needed a lot less wire if they ran AC to homes. stil 25 cycle power was used a lot , I would think more in the eastern US. a lot of radios made between about 1927 and before the war, '36 or so have massive transformers which are quite heavy and they needed these larger transformers until they started to go towards 60 Hz and then transformers were a lot smaller and lighter.

previous to this all radios ran on batteries and people often took them to gas stations to recharge so the invention of AC tubes was a huge leap forward. I have some examples of these early tubes at home. they look like this :
http://www.tubecollection.de/ura/mccullough.htm

the other big change that happened at this time was that radios got easier to use. early radios usually had three dials and they all needed to be adjusted to tune a particular station. it required some patience. in time the radios went through improvements , first to link the three tuning sections and later to the superhetrodyne radio. most of the radios after the war and up to now are superhetrodyne the early ones were more like scientific communications , not for music and you needed headphones or early horn speakers. Magnets weren't what they were today. some of my early speaker examples had huge permanent magnet speakers. most o the ones in the 30's were electrodynamic speakers where they used a coil of wire as the magnet. in the early 50's magnets got better and they then only needed to power the voice coil.

in 1927 in 1927 CFRB radio was put online. this was a powerful station and still exists today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFRB
this stands for rogeers first rogers batteryless

here's a video of one of these older radios in operation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqJQPFrcV6c

Phil

[Don M]

Is there any wiring in the wall where the opening is? It doesn't appear to have had an electrical box.

[Corsetière]

The knob and tube wiring is present but no modern electrical box. None of the existing light fixtures in this house have actual boxes as far as I can tell. The spots for the sconces that I discovered at the same time are the same set up too - basically just some wire sticking out of the wall.

I guess it could have been an electrical outlet or a call button. The outlet is a pretty good theory...

[phil]

often early outlets were surface mounted too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knob-and- ... socket.jpg

http://www.rexophone.com/?p=1175

http://www.rexophone.com/wp-content/upl ... 8/0AC2.jpg

I have some examples of these kind of porcelain parts the rotating switches, the porcelain thing that's to hang a lamp. they apear well made and safe enaough but Im not sure if they are leagal nowadays.

the article in wikipedia on K and T wiring mentions this "carter system" where in stead of running a pair they ran the outlets in series. It would have made troubleshooting fun. maybe some here find single runs of one wire. mine all run in pairs although separate the two wires always run near to each other, and they use boxes that was in 1924

it could have been a switch and not an outlet?

[Don M]

If it's regular knob & tube wiring then probably an outlet. In my childhood home there were electrical outlets in the floor which had screw-in plug sockets. I could unscrew them & screw in light bulbs! This fits with Phil's radio plug. I suppose the K&T installation didn't require electrical boxes because the lath & plaster allowed solid attachment of fixtures without the need for a box. Fire due to overloading of the circuit probably wasn't much of a concern because all one had to plug in was a lamp or a radio for the most part.