It you are much younger that my almost 95 years, you probably have never heard of knob and tube wiring. It was the early form of house wiring. Everything electrical back then was new. The easiest way to wire a house was surface wiring. There probably was only a ceiling fixture in a room.

Knob and tube wiring had separate hot and neutral wires hung in space on ceramic knobs spaced on the exposed side of the wall.. From 1880 to 1940 they were the first type of home wiring. The tubes were passageways for the individual wires to give a protective channel through the walls and ceilings. There might be one outlet in a room. If so, it would be at shoulder height; no baseboard outlets back then.

Prior to this, houses were lighted with candles and kerosene lamps. An electrical ceiling fixture would have been a luxurious way to light a room. Examples of candle-lit chandeliers can be seen in old time movies on TV.

I remember hearing how dangerous such wiring was. We didn’t have it at the tenant farm when Dad worked by the month for a neighboring farmer during the Great Depression. Kerosene lamps were it. We heated with a pot bullied stove and cooked on a wood fired kitchen range.

So, when you click on that ceiling light or plug in that table lamp or radio, be grateful for the technological advancement that allows you to light a room, cook a meal, chill a bottle of milk or heat the house. That hasn’t been available for very many years.

When we bought the property on Summers Road near Norris Lake, the middle house had such wiring. To see it in a house in the late 1980’s was a shock. To remove it was the first task my husband undertook after we moved in.

We have lived with aluminum wiring or no wiring at all. The current style of copper wiring with multiple switches, outlets and ceiling fixtures is no longer a luxury. Enjoy.