10 dangerous things in Victorian/Edwardian homes

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Knob and tube

As originally and professionally installed, knob and tube is actually quite safe, esp. when the fuse boxes have been upgraded to circuit breakers.

The problems with KNT wiring arise when:

1) Homeowners extend it by inexpertly splicing into it, overloading the 20 amp wiring
2) Someone overlays the wiring with cellulose insulation in the attic. If there is condensation in the attic (common) or a roof leak, the cellulose material gets wet and conductive, potentially leading to shorts and fires.
3) Even non-wettable insulation over KNT wiring can be a problem. The wiring is designed to heat up at max load, and cool off by radiating heat to the surrounding air. If it's buried under insulation, it may not have the opportunity to shed heat and can get overly hot, causing insulation to deteriorate.
4) Some older extensions of KNT, such as to ceiling light fixtures in closets, added after original construction, may have used substandard wiring with extremely brittle insulation. These need to be replaced with modern, safer wiring.
5) Most KNT wiring provides for no ground wire. This can be a problem when trying to run larger loads such as modern washers, dryers, fridges, etc that have grounded plugs. It also can be had to find non-grounded outlets, so when the original outlets wear out, there's a temptation to install grounded outlets without a separate ground wire, which then result in a floating ground.
 
 

That's a great explanation.

 

I had to explain to an HVAC contractor last year about placement of insulation with KNT wiring.  I think the greater problem is that people are becoming clueless to safety and are relying on codes to protect them from lack of common sense.  Unfortunately, people will continue to become more clueless, so the code requirements MUST be changed to protect the new and improved idiot.  I stuck a key into an electric receptacle one time only!  I realized it wasn't a good idea, but learned that cloth was an insulator when removing it. 
 
Well you know the saying - nothing can be made fool proof since fools are so ingenious.

IMHO fuse boxes were perfectly safe as designed. The problem with them was the PEOPLE in the building, who would put a higher rated fuse in the box when the proper rated one kept on blowing. Even worse, they'd put pennies in there which afforded even less protection. So after a number of fires from improperly operated fuse boxes, insurance companies now generally refuse to insure a home with a fuse box.

And so it goes. Some safety regulations are life savers. But others are there just to protect people from themselves. Kind of sad.
 
Knob & Tube Wiring.

I am restoring a house built in the mid 1880s or so and it is full of 1st generation electric (lots of knob and tube wiring). I wrote a thesis in historic preservation on some of these old mechanical systems and that is why I am keeping my K&T wiring. The wires are separated by a minimum of 6 inches. Any closer than that and the old installation standards books call for an extra layer of insulating sleeve be installed over the wires (called a loom). All of the insulation can fall off of the wires and the system will still function perfectly because the wires are too far apart to short together. I do have circuit breaker panels, but I have a great deal of respect for fuse boxes because fuses tend to trip faster than circuit breakers and they have fewer instances of failure, as long as only the correct amperage fuses are used.

The biggest problem with K&T wiring, as well as with most older wiring, is not so much the materials or techniques used but the amount of service provided. At the time when these systems were installed, the demand for electric capacity was far lower than it is today. People had fewer electric devices and the ones they did have tended to draw less current. In my house, there are newer circuits, run with modern ROMEX wiring, that provide the majority of the service. The old K&T system is mostly powering lighting and a few (very few) outlets.

New CFL and LED lighting has been cause for a significant reduction in the load on my K&T system because newer light bulbs draw so much less current than incandescent bulbs.

I'll keep my K&T wiring :)
Dave
 
My house also has a mixture of K&T and more modern types of wiring.

The original 1941 structure has K&T for the lights and outlets in the living room, dining room, bath, and one bedroom. As well as the lights in the family room and kitchen.

At some point, probably in the 1960's, the outlets in the kitchen, laundry closet, and family room were upgraded to modern vinyl wiring running in rigid conduit or armored cable.

The master bedroom/bath, added on probably in the 1970's, runs on Romex. But the feed to that part of the house is via a K&T run from the breaker panel up front.

The K&T in the attic in very good shape. A couple of closet lights must have been added on after the original construction. They have that old wire insulation that is very brittle and crumbling off. At some point I'll probably replace those short runs with modern Romex.

There are those who maintain that properly installed and maintained K&T is actually safer that Romex, because in the event of a circuit overload, the wires in the Romex can melt through the shared insulation and short out, whereas the K&T wiring has, as you pointed out, at least six inches of separation, or ceramic insulators that can't melt.
 
Have been watching the excellent PBS series "The Poisoners Handbook" which is based itself on the excellent book of the same name.

It is truly amazing what was commonly found in homes during the early part of the 20th century. Worse still how various poisons were loosely regulated if not totally unregulated.

As one noted before in this thread the ample supply and easily obtained amounts of various poisons meant more than a hundred persons per year either directly or indirectly were sent to their maker via poison. Everything from rodenticide to ethyl petrol for cars.

My favourite two are two forms of commonly used rat poisons: Rough on Rats and Cyanogas.

What one didn't know until watching this series was how often persons were poisoned by say a person, an employer or business and literally no one ever was punished.

Unlike most of Europe where there is along history of poisons being used (think the Borgia family for a start) and thus medical science to detect traces of such in corpses, then said evidence being used in criminal proceedings, many places in the USA had no such thing. In places like NYC and elsewhere coroners were usually political hacks, appointed more by patronage than anything else and rarely trained physicians. Thus juries tended rarely if ever to believe any "science" those men put forth and accused walked free.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/poisoners/
 
Thallium rat poisons were especially nasty things-dangerous to other creatures-including people,pets and kids besides the target animals rats&mice.They are banned now.You were able to buy these at any gocery store-and the most dangerous consumer chemical product-lye drain cleaners-still available.Toxic to ANYTHING that ingests them!Radium products went a long time ago-but clock collecters love the older Radium dial clocks.And these were surprizinly radioactive-imagine that by your bedside!-and where your head is no less-Not good-but we still suvived!The clock collectors keep their radium dial clocks in a cabinet away from the bed!
 
Radium dial clocks

Last word on that subject least one be accused of hijacking a thread; but do see the above mentioned program. It references radium poisoning of the workers who made such clocks and watches in New Jersey. Those poor women died long, slow and painful deaths as their bones literally rotted. One poor young girl went to see her dentist who actually lifted her lower jaw out of her mouth. That is how bad the state of her bones had become.
 
Yes,That was the big reason the Radium clock dials were banned-from the people-mostly women that painted the dials and to paint the small numbers and markings-"sharpened" the ends of the paintbrushes by licking them or putting them in their mouths.Some of the factory supervisors even encouraged the women to use the paint as "glowing makeup" with really horrible results.This was back in the days when the hazards or radioactive materials were not understood.A lesson learned the unfortunate HARD WAY with those clock painters suffering terrible injuries and deathes.The paint was made from Radium and zinc sulphide-the zinc sulphide glowed from the Radium radiation.The woman painters had steadier hands then men.
 
I never was ...

... a fan of the "glow-in-the-dark" alarm clocks. The glow almost always faded within a couple hours, and you still woke up with a black clock in the middle of the night.

I'm still using a 1970's era electric alarm with a lighted dial, along with an L.L. Bean reissue of the classic "Moonbeam" clock, which thankfully also has a lighted dial.
 
Modern 'Glow-in the Dark' clocks

Modern clocks (etc), as NYCWriter has observed, fade after a few hours because they don't have the Radium content. They just use a long-persistence phosphorescent paint. True radium dials only fade when the fluorescent paint becomes 'exhausted' (in the same way as a T.V. or oscilloscope screen becomes duller with extended use). A new coat of paint and they are 'good as new'. The Radium is still producing plenty of radiation, and will continiue to do so for a LONG time yet... ;-)

I have several Radium activated dials, and a 'Geiger Counter' to demonstrate their quite surprising level of activity with. It keeps my Godchildren amused anyway..... ;-)

All best

Dave T
 
You can "charge" phosphorescent paint very effectively with a light source that has UV light-IE Flourescent lights,"Black light" lamps,or UV flashlights-some fish lures have the phosphorescent paint on them so they will glow underwater-attracting fish.You "Charge" them with a UV flashlight.UV flashlights have UV emitter LEDs in them.Have a few of these in my light collection.Used to have a phosphorescent key fob-the UV flashlight charged it well-would glow for a day!
Dave: interesting you have some radium clocks-you must be a clock collector.I have a few Geiger counters from the older "cold war" days.They still work.They will measure the X-Ray radiation from one of our transmitters modulator tube.
 
Tolivac

I'm not a clock collector (though a friend of mine used to repair them), I have just acquired a few dials over the years precisely BECAUSE of the Radium content - plus my old alarm clock from my childhood,which still works, and probably dates back to the '40s, but is now in 'retirement', which still produces lots of beta radiation, but the phosphor is exhausted. Some U.K. telephones in the 1980s had Tritium powered backlights for the dials (the 'Trimphone' series), these lost light output quite rapidly, less to do with the (relatively) short half-life of Tritium than the inferior phosphor used... ;-)

All best

Dave T

P.S. About the only thing that I could be said to 'collect' (apart from general junk and tools) is Tek 7000 series Oscilloscopes, of which I have nine... plus a pair of old 555s...:)
 
Radium Dial Painters

Very sad story - I know someone who wrote a book about them from a public health perspective. Would be interesting to talk to him about that.
 
Radium produces alpha and gamma rays.

Tritium produces beta rays.

Gamma rays are the most penetrating.

In either case, as the watch or clock ages, the paint holding the radioactive element(s) breaks down, and radioactive dust may be released. Additional radioactive deposits may coat the inside of the timepiece from radioactive gas byproducts (like radon). For this reason one should be very careful disassembling and working on old timepieces with luminous dials. Just because they have stopped glowing doesn't necessarily mean they are no longer a radioactive health hazard.
 
Radiactive sites

In one of the Chicago area (Cook County) forest preserves, there are remains of the University of Chicago atomic experiments with signage warning people to avoid digging there. Must be similar to the radium dial graves.
 

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