Vintage Light Switch history

[ElectricianJeff]

I'm doing a bunch of work on a house built in the 1850's. Today I replaced a rotary porcelin light switch. It was marked on the back Perkins Nov. 26, 1901. I always thought that homes started getting electricity around 1910-1912' If so, this has to be one of the first resd. light switches ever made. Was just wondering if anyone could shed some light on this latest find?

 

[Hv&Lv]

Look around in here. Also check out these free downloads of the NEC

 

[al hildenbrand]

A lot of electrical things occurred in the two decades before 1910. I got a really great sense of the radical changes initiated with the introduction of electricity in the average person's life, by reading the biography of Nikola Tesla, Man Out Of Time, written by Margaret Cheney. I highly recommend it.

1901 for a rotary snap switch is early but, before AC, there was DC in those buildings electrified for early adapters of this new fangled technology. I'll bet that switch has some DC ratings on it.

DC goes back into Edison's models of electrical generation and distribution. The story of Edison's attempts to villify AC in the early decades of the 1900s is revelatory. It's wonderfully told by Cheney.

 

[ElectricianJeff]

thanks Al I will check into the book.

This switch is rated 5 amps 250 volts.