At 04:58 PM 9/24/99 -0800, Dan Larson wrote:
>On Fri, 24 Sep 1999 17:48:07 -0400, Robert A. LaBudde wrote:
>
>............
>
>Anyone here have an old  house with bare exposed wiring in the attic
>separated only by ceramic insulators?  No *that's* scary !
>
>Dan
>
Don't have such a house now, but grew up in one.  My grandfather built
a house in East Texas in 1921-1922, which had the type of wiring you
describe.  It is called "knob and tube" wiring, for the knobs holding
the wires, and the ceramic tubes through holes in the framing through
which the wires ran.  When in high-school the house was renovated and the
wiring (almost all of it) replaced with "Romex".  That was in 1950.
I was interested in learning the techniques and asked the electrician
if I could help.  I wound up doing all the work and he got paid.  I received
my pay in education, for which I have been grateful ever since.  For
the record, knob and tube was considered obsolete before WWII.

Bob McClure