Bob, my house was built in 1906. It's a two story house with an attic and
basement. A lot of the wiring is `knob and tube'. There was an update with
wire that I can't identify other than to say that I'm glad I don't have
rats... My family moved here in 1955. I came back home around 5 years ago.
The first thing I did was isolate circuits. I ran 20A service to the
kitchen, the furnace (all the lights in the house dimmed when it came on),
my home-office-lab, and external outlets. I then had to go through the
`maze' of old wiring to track down lighting and outlets. Where possible I
ran 20A service to most outlets. For lighting, I used 15A. There are a few
remnants of the old wiring buried in a wall but I sleep easier...

   - Tom

At 12:39 PM 9/25/99 -0700, Robert M. McClure wrote:
>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


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Handley
New Age Communications
Since '75 before "New Age" and no one around here is waiting for UFOs ;-)