Old wiring devices

[Tim R.]

A small hobby of mine is antique light switches and outlets. It’s been a lifelong interest of mine, going back to my first encounter with vintage electronics. A neighbor of mine had an old cathedral radio in his living room, and he noticed it had caught my eye. He said that it still worked, and told me to plug it in so we could listen to it. Being that it was an old house (you could see where it had gas light fixtures at one point), it had an older, unusual outlet near the radio and my 5 year old mind could not figure out how to plug the radio in. I remember it looking like this:



That day launched two of my hobbies. I remember the push button switches on the walls of my house, and an old round one by the basement stairs that sparked and made a snap when you rotated it.

Since then I’ve amassed a collection of vintage wiring devices – especially the early ones that predated the standard 3 prong outlets and flip light switches. It’s amazing the sheer variety that was out there in the early days – many different and incompatible types of plugs and outlets, and various unique ways of turning lights on and off. It’s something most of us would ignore, but I can’t help noticing those small details when I am in an older building.