Wire nuts ... invented when? What was used before?

[infinity]

I remember my grandfather had a small alcohol torch that he used for soldering back in the 20's, 30's and 40's. By the time my dad entered the trade in the 1950's the era of the alcohol torch, solder and friction tape was over.

 

[Thedroid]

All of the original 120V circuits in the plant use these Blackburn connectors. Lighting, receptacles, switches, etc. They are also wrapped with cotton tape, then painted with some sort of black insulating varnish. We have a few old cans, but I cant remember the name. They are a very reliable connection, and I have not seen a single failure yet. Must have been labor intensive, but the finished product speaks for itself.

 

[hbiss]

I rarely find them in work older than, say, 1960.

Wow! Guess the wagon train didn't get them out to you for a long time. Here in the North East I see them in houses built even before the 40's. In the late 40's early 50's we were using romex.

-Hal

 

[weressl]

I'm on the other side of the pond.
The only ones I have seen were porcelain, usually called Scruits, and I haven't seen any used here since about the 1960s.
Mostly, wires are joined in fixed terminal blocks and most electrical fixtures have provision for doing that. Light switches and ceiling roses usually have extra terminals for switch wires. The need for wire nuts has gone.
Different practices, I know.

Me too, but even further inland.

I have NOT seen a wirenut until I landed on these shores. Small house wiring was twist-n-tape, even 'aluminium'. We had some paper/zinc tubes that were buried in the plaster over the brick - no drywall - and later on direct buried wires into the plaster. Those wires would terminate in embedded round JB's that had a cover flush with the wall. Larger wires were for industrial wiring would be bolt/nut splicing or terminal landing. Old school would solder, but the new socislist/Stahanovist -look it up in Wiki, quite interesting - work-methods considered it as bourgeois overkill and of course useless for 'aluminium' wiring. (The 'aluminium' wiring is how we were going to defeat the capitalist enemy who had most of the copper in their possession and it was also a strategic material necessary for the Warsaw-Pact armament.)

In the late 60's we have seen some Wago type push-ons on trade shown by Western companies but certainly could not afford them.

 

[dingokangaroo]

Other methods of securing wiring that are now obsolete include:

Re-use of existing gas pipes for electric lighting. Insulated conductors were pulled into the pipes feeding gas lamps.
Wood moldings with grooves cut for single conductor wires, covered by a wooden cap strip. These were prohibited in North American electrical codes by 1928. Wooden molding was also used to some degree in England, but was never permitted by German and Austrian rules. [5]
A system of flexible twin cords supported by glass or porcelain buttons was used near the turn of the 20th century in Europe, but was soon replaced by other methods. [6]
During the first years of the 20th century various patented forms of wiring system such as Bergman and Peschel tubing were used to protect wiring; these used very thin fiber tubes or metal tubes which were also used as return conductors. [7]
In Austria, wires were concealed by embedding a rubber tube in a groove in the wall, plastering over it and then removing the tube and pulling in wires in the cavity. [8]
Metal molding systems, with a flattened oval section consisting of a base strip and a snap-on cap channel, were more costly than open wiring or wooden molding, but could be easily run on wall surfaces. Similar systems are still available today.

 

[glene77is]

I didn't think it was that long ago;
I rarely find them in work older than, say, 1960.

Reno,
We used black wire nuts in 1958,
Virginia Beach, VA, at Smith-Keene Electric.
Buchanan caps were available, but nobody used them.
We were not allowed to twist/solder/tape any connections.
When I moved to Memphis, TN, 1967,
the first shop I worked at was twisting/solder/taping everything.
The second and third shops were using wire-nuts.

I have seen a fair number of K&T jobs, where the joints were simply telegraph wraps of 20 turns,
perhaps soldered.
One house was from 1912, with many patches, most from 1940's.

 

[russ]

I have a 1930 copy of "Practical and Technical Electricity". The only spices mentioned in are,
Bellhanger's, Western Union, Pigtail, and Turn back. Also mentions Taps: Plain, Knotted, Cross or Double, and Duplex. It also mentions it being a code requirement that they all be soldiered.
It has step by step pictures of all of them.

It say's: Back then the code was updated every two years on the odd numbered year, and made available in March of the even numbered year.

 

[renosteinke]

"Guess the wagon train didn't get them out to you for a long time" Love it!

It's all subjective, I suppose. Take my place, as an example: built in 1940 with the very trendy cloth-covered Romex, the connections are all twisted, soldered, and taped.

I can see the slow acceptance of wire nuts. Those old boxes (with the clipped corners) were somewhat smaller- and trade practice of the time didn't give you any extra wire. Connections were made as close to the entry as possible.

Another common practice, in days of yore, was to not cut the wire at all ... simply skin off some insulation and wrap it around the device screw as the wire passed through the box. This method does seem to make for exceptionally good connections.

As for the wagon train: My Ideal rep assures me that earlier deliveries were attempted, but those pesky Injuns kept waylaying the shippments. This was solved with the introduction of the green wire nuts, which were found -due to the hole in the end- to be much easier to string into beadwork. That's when we began to get the regular ones.

 

[Besoeker]

Me too, but even further inland.

I would have guessed Hungary from your name but Stakhanovist suggests the old Soviet Union.?

I have NOT seen a wirenut until I landed on these shores. Small house wiring was twist-n-tape, even 'aluminium'. We had some paper/zinc tubes that were buried in the plaster over the brick - no drywall - and later on direct buried wires into the plaster. Those wires would terminate in embedded round JB's that had a cover flush with the wall. Larger wires were for industrial wiring would be bolt/nut splicing or terminal landing. Old school would solder, but the new socislist/Stahanovist -look it up in Wiki, quite interesting - work-methods considered it as bourgeois overkill and of course useless for 'aluminium' wiring. (The 'aluminium' wiring is how we were going to defeat the capitalist enemy who had most of the copper in their possession and it was also a strategic material necessary for the Warsaw-Pact armament.)

In the late 60's we have seen some Wago type push-ons on trade shown by Western companies but certainly could not afford them.

Interesting history, thank you.

 

[weressl]

I would have guessed Hungary from your name but Stakhanovist suggests the old Soviet Union.?


Interesting history, thank you.

Ve vere vorking according to the Great Example dat de Soviet Liberators provided us like Tovarich Stakhanov...ve vere no longer Magyars, but part of de Great Socialist Brotherhood vorking to defeat the Imperialist Vest. (Thank Good that we've failed......:grin

 

[rt66electric]

do I get a prize?? 1920's gas pump

do I get a prize?? 1920's gas pump

I think I have the oldest. I was rewiring a 1920's "WAYNE 60" gaspump the wirenuts were found inside an explosion proof round screw box. The wirenuts are black bakelite, simlilar some black high temps found in metal-halide fixtures.
The wireing to the light bulbs are cloth 14ga like K+T.
IDEAL universal to 4 no14 pat 1,700,985

 

[glene77is]

I think I have the oldest. I was rewiring a 1920's "WAYNE 60" gaspump the wirenuts were found inside an explosion proof round screw box. The wirenuts are black bakelite, simlilar some black high temps found in metal-halide fixtures.
The wireing to the light bulbs are cloth 14ga like K+T.
IDEAL universal to 4 no14 pat 1,700,985

RT,
Your prize is in the mail !

 

[Bill Perrino]

I had 2 porcelin wire nuts. A small one = yellow, a larger = red. Donated them to union display.

 

[glene77is]

Other methods of securing wiring that are now obsolete include:
...
In Austria, wires were concealed by embedding a rubber tube in a groove in the wall, plastering over it and then removing the tube and pulling in wires in the cavity. [8] ...

Dingo,
I found that interesting, and you should mention the URL at Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_wire
Good article on electric wiring, covers world-wide methods in general.

There is a photo of the installation of European 3G cables in brick wall,
just as you mentioned.
Makes me think we should have adopted some European methods.