Quote:
Originally Posted by bgadow
Here is one I've been trying to figure out for years:
Our shop, which was built around 1950, used nothing but these. My father would just bend one prong of everything he bought, but when I started working for him I replaced them all with standard grounded sockets. Why would they make them like that? I could understand if it were DC, but why for 120vac? |
Back in the house I grew up in there was one newer (the house was built in the 30's-40's, but this outlet and a couple of other things were from the 70's-80's) outlet in the dining room that was a hybrid between what you have there and a normal outlet being that it could accept both kinds of plugs. The only thing I saw with the odd plug was a sander or some such that the folks who refinished our floors used. I believe that that outlet may have had it's own fuse. The refinishers also had some thing that I believe ran on 240V as they also had to open the fuse box an patch in with clip leads.
I've seen knob and tube wiring before....The most memorable occasion was in the second floor of an antique shop in Kentucky where the wiring fed some of the oldest bulbs I've seen in person. New wiring and lighting had been added, but they left the old stuff in there.......Was that ever cool to see.