1920's BX?

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I believe as Knuckle Dragger has suggested that it was intended to be used for direct burial. Is this a government building? Might explain the "gold plating" here.
 
AFAIK the bldg was built as a privately owned TB hospital.
Since the only thing I've seen there up till now was RMC inside the block partitions and deck pours. it did surprise me to see so much bx above that ceiling. I said the ceiling was original, but maybe not... maybe that area was renovated shortly after it was built.
 
I've seen a lot of old BX without a lead sheath, though I couldn't attest to what era it came from.
If it was intended for direct burial, I would expect the lead to be on the outside and in contact with the soil, not the steel.
It does look extra durable, except when you bring it into the same small junction boxes of the era and make the same tight-radius bends, you'll have the same insulation failures at the connections.
 
RAKocher said:
AFAIK the bldg was built as a privately owned TB hospital.
Since the only thing I've seen there up till now was RMC inside the block partitions and deck pours. it did surprise me to see so much bx above that ceiling. I said the ceiling was original, but maybe not... maybe that area was renovated shortly after it was built.
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According to the old Codes, the lead cover on the individual armored cable conductors would help to protect the synthetic rubber insulation from other corrosive agents besides moisture.
 
One foot of this stuff weighs 5.86 oz. (yes, I weighed it!:D)

That’s 92 lb.’s for a 250’ coil of #14-2… Yikes!

I’ve heard there was an armored cable called AX that was discontinued and was at first wondering if this was it, but, as most have said, lead sheathed conductors must be for special occupancies, encased in concrete or UF.
 
RAKocher said:
One foot of this stuff weighs 5.86 oz. (yes, I weighed it!:D)

That’s 92 lb.’s for a 250’ coil of #14-2… Yikes!

I’ve heard there was an armored cable called AX that was discontinued and was at first wondering if this was it, but, as most have said, lead sheathed conductors must be for special occupancies, encased in concrete or UF.
Click to expand...

AX stood for "A" cable experimental. BX was "B" cable experimental. Guess BX made the cut.

-Hal
 
RAKocher said:
One foot of this stuff weighs 5.86 oz. (yes, I weighed it!:D)

That’s 92 lb.’s for a 250’ coil of #14-2… Yikes!

I’ve heard there was an armored cable called AX that was discontinued and was at first wondering if this was it, but, as most have said, lead sheathed conductors must be for special occupancies, encased in concrete or UF.
Click to expand...

hbiss said:
AX stood for "A" cable experimental. BX was "B" cable experimental. Guess BX made the cut.
Click to expand...
The designations of "AX" and "BX" were the manufacturer's designation. Just like "Romex" is a tradename for one manufacturer's non-metallic sheathed cable (the Rome Cable Company, if I recall correctly.) Or, for a portable, hand-held, motorized, reciprocating saw "Sawzall" (which was a registered tradename by Milwaukee Tool).

Flexible armored cable was developed by multiple manufacturers in the first decade of the 1900s and was far enough along, as a product, by 1911, that the authors of the National Electrical Code had arrived at a standard that flexible armored cable had to meet. In the 1913 Supplement to the 1911 NEC, you will find the first requirement (rule) that flexible armored cable must be "Type AC". Armored cable had to be "Type AC" then, just like today. Many think of BX as a "Type" of armored cable, but it never was anything more than a tradename for one manufacturer's brand.

Initially the lead covering of the rubber insulation of the conductors in Type AC armored cable was not given a designation, but later, in the NEC, became "Type ACL". Even so, in 1913, the lead covering of armored cable conductor insulation was described, including the flexibility of it -- it had to able to bend, without damage, a radius equal to four times the diameter of the outer armored cable flexible sheath.
 
That stuff is very popular in NYC I would say that 50% of most buildings in NYC are still wired with the stuff it's very common to come across around here

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