History of Aluminum Wiring

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Aluminum conductors first appeared in the code really early on, I think 1901 NEC if I am not mistaken.
It was not widely used until the 1960's.
Here its more common to see AL than copper for circuits 125 Amps and larger.
 
I was wandering around Amazon & found this.

Hot Connections: Aluminum Wire, Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire, and the Myth of Self-Regulating Industry: Aronstein, Jesse: 9780578898353: Amazon.com: Books

Hot Connections: Aluminum Wire, Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire, and the Myth of Self-Regulating Industry [Aronstein, Jesse] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Hot Connections: Aluminum Wire, Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire, and the Myth of Self-Regulating Industry
www.amazon.com

Was looking for a book from Arcadia Publishing on the club I had seen years ago when scanning a list of books they published, BTW, the number of books they do have is enormous they might even have one covering your community or subject nearby.

Amazon.com: The Building of the Oroville Dam (Images of America): 9781467130790: Matthews, Larry R.: Books

Amazon.com: The Building of the Oroville Dam (Images of America): 9781467130790: Matthews, Larry R.: Books
www.amazon.com

Whitemarsh Hall: The Estate of Edward T. Stotesbury: Zwicker, Charles G, Zwicker, Edward C, Springfield Township Historical Society: 9781531621131: Amazon.com: Books

Whitemarsh Hall: The Estate of Edward T. Stotesbury [Zwicker, Charles G, Zwicker, Edward C, Springfield Township Historical Society] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Whitemarsh Hall: The Estate of Edward T. Stotesbury
www.amazon.com
 
ggunn said:
I don't think aluminum wire, in and of itself, could have caused the fire; the way it was installed seems a more likely culprit to me. There were characteristics of aluminum that were not well enough understood at the time, but had they been known and taken into account it likely could have been safely used.
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Read a book on the debacle of NM sheathed AL conductors & apparently the club was wired with NM sheathed aluminum, but the place was rebuilt and expanded after a fire in 1970-71, the 1965 NEC allowed concealed K &T in places of assembly, no telling what code was adopted then, and the whole introduction of 10 & 12 AWG AL by Kaiser Aluminum & others was a wild west.
 
norcal said:
Read a book on the debacle of NM sheathed AL conductors & apparently the club was wired with NM sheathed aluminum, but the place was rebuilt and expanded after a fire in 1970-71, the 1965 NEC allowed concealed K &T in places of assembly, no telling what code was adopted then, and the whole introduction of 10 & 12 AWG AL by Kaiser Aluminum & others was a wild west.
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Sorry if I wasn't specific enough. I meant that aluminum metal itself is fine for a conductor.
 
Just remember that today's alloy is very different from the original aluminum conductors which caused all the problems. The aluminum you see today is very safe, in fact, it doesn't even require the Noalox as the other alloy did. Some of us die-hards still use the Noalox even though it is not necessary.
 
norcal said:
1965 NEC allowed concealed K &T in places of assembly,
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The good old days.

I can remember being in large fabrication and machine shops where they just had a heavy loop bus running down the wall on insulators. They just ran conduit down the wall with a fused disco kind of like installing a service and connected the machines to it. Worse yet it was 4 wire 220v 2 phase (philly)

Then there was the hard drawn copper span wire running down all the craneways. Anchored only on the ends. Middle just sat on insulators. Break one of them and you could have a couple hundred feet of live bare copper falling to the floor
 
norcal said:
apparently the club was wired with NM sheathed aluminum, but the place was rebuilt and expanded after a fire in 1970-71, the 1965 NEC allowed concealed K &T in places of assembly, no telling what code was adopted then,
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Thats interesting, before California had a statewide electrical code the city of L.A had its own electrical code much like most other major US cities at the time. The 1965 version of the LA code did not have K&T or NM wiring methods, it was much like the Chicago code, metallic wiring methods and cellular floor raceways were all that was allowed. Aluminum wiring was allowed though.
 
jlack said:
Questions for for my old-timer electrical friends - Has Aluminum wiring ever been used as a feeder to a 100- amp service in buildings? Branch circuits? If so, at what time period? Would that be safe today?
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This maybe a bit of a stretch since you are only asking when aluminum was used in electrical wiring.

My house that was built in the early 90s is fed from aluminum UG cable like all homes built in the same time frame.
POCO-installed # 4/0 AWG.


Since the discovery of aluminum ( base -metal ) in 1886, its popularity hasn’t gained much in terms of its usability at the time. Aluminum was the result of the of work two American scientists using electrolysis.

Joe Blow wasn’t even born yet for wiring great grandma’s shack in the middle of a cornfield. :)

The push for aluminum usage started after World War II when GI’s were returning home from the battle fields in Asia and the European Continent. The need for housing was critical that engineers scrambled for building low-cost housing –and aluminum wiring was their go- to small solution.
About a few miles from where I live, these houses were built the cheapest way possible. Vaulted ceiling with no attic, one outlet in the living room and two in the kitchen.

Fast forward. . . . . . 1990s, these houses electrical wiring were not adequate.

So, these new homeowners decided to do DIY by messing with the wiring.. . . that’s where the problems showed up.

Device boxes were either metal or bakelite. Cloth-covered or lead sheathed romex with no ground wire.

Majority of these houses still exist fortunately I haven’t seen any house burn down.

Aluminum wiring is OK if you leave it alone . Don’t even disturb it or you loosen the connections.

Aluminum is more expensive to produce than copper because it requires tremendous amount of electrical energy through the process of electrolysis.

There are other processes that are less expensive though.

Bauxite is the prime ore in making aluminum. there’s a few bauxite mining operation in the US but not enough to satisfy our voracious appetite.

Luckily, our friend up north (Canada) is supplying most of our needs.

Australia, China, Russia , and many South American Countries are also big sources of BAUXITE.

That’s just partial history of this very useful light weight base metal.
 
letgomywago said:
I'm a new timer and yes and from the 60s on. Also aluminum is still allowed for branch circuits its just needs to have proper connections and no one makes 10awg or smaller aluminum excluding copper clad but that's a different material completely. For feeders over 40 amps it is very common in new installations.
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When I helped my dad & sparky electrician uncle on 100 amp services in the early 1960's they were using the old fabric covered #2 Aluminum service cable so it's been around a long time.
 
Copper prices spiked in late 1960s. Did use some copper coated Al wire from 1967 up till circa 1972 when discontinued, about same time 14 AWG ground in 12 AWG copper NM was discontinued and 12 AWG ground required.

Installed 100A aluminum feeder to subpanel in own house in 1972, #2 AWG, 90C. Still in same house, circa 2000 was last time got any movement when tightening the Ni-compound coated lugs in panel to 24 ft-#, so there was some Al creep for nearly 30 years.
 
junkhound said:
Copper prices spiked in late 1960s. Did use some copper coated Al wire from 1967 up till circa 1972 when discontinued, about same time 14 AWG ground in 12 AWG copper NM was discontinued and 12 AWG ground required.

Installed 100A aluminum feeder to subpanel in own house in 1972, #2 AWG, 90C. Still in same house, circa 2000 was last time got any movement when tightening the Ni-compound coated lugs in panel to 24 ft-#, so there was some Al creep for nearly 30 years.
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That's a lot of tourqe for those lugs. Usually the smaller ones are 250 in lbs at most.
 
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