Does anyone have a clue as to what this dial is or may have controlled? It's at the bottom of the back stairs in my new house and we have no idea as to its origin!
Thank you!!
--John
Thank you!!
--John
A mystery dial --
- Thread starter johninpeekskill
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hooverwheelaway
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I am pretty sure that it's a dimmer switch of some sort.. for lights. I saw these switches discussed in another thread here not too long ago.
Yes! Here is the thread where they were discussed...
Yes! Here is the thread where they were discussed...
Thank you for the quick reply Fred!
Dimmer it is! Now the mystery is what was being dimmed? It's at the bottom of what would have been the staircase for "the help". There is also a door at the bottom of the stairwell. I guess at this point whatever it was controlling is long gone. We'll have to pull the switch off the wall and see where the wiring goes.
We seem to learn something new every day in this place!
Dimmer it is! Now the mystery is what was being dimmed? It's at the bottom of what would have been the staircase for "the help". There is also a door at the bottom of the stairwell. I guess at this point whatever it was controlling is long gone. We'll have to pull the switch off the wall and see where the wiring goes.
We seem to learn something new every day in this place!
how large is the basement?
Maybe there was a bar or a playroom down there....
Maybe there was a bar or a playroom down there....
This could also be a speed control for some type of fan.
I have usually seen these knobs for controlling flourescent(sp?) lights.....
Its an older "Variac" style light dimmer-used a variable autotransformer to dim the lights-this predates the solid state lower cost "triac" dimmers.It can dim any incandescent light-or flourescents with dimming ballasts.
Someone put a non-functioning light switch in the front hall of my parents' house that my late-mom long thought was for a lamp post on the lawn... But other peoples' houses had only ONE switch on the switch plate strictly for the over-head light in that vestibule, whereas there is one switch on top of the other, of which one controls the hall light, and the other, most-likely for another light or maybe an electrical outlet that never materialized...
The light switch by the front door has two switches one over the other, one for the porch light and the other for the outlet behind the couch to control a lamp, of which an additional outside light would be more practically put there if that were the former homeowners' intentions...
What I really find annoying is that my back hallway has two light switches side by side and someone foreign to what they do flips BOTH of them up, in which case ONE illuminates the basement light and the over-head light in the hall, but the other causes the OUTSIDE LIGHT ot go on!
Now the lighting in the basement is florescent so, yes, there is a delay in the basement being lit, but I have a switch at the foot of the stairs of which someone going up WILL flip that switch to turn off the light down stairs, but the outside light will inadvertently stay on...! And there is a switch in the other side of the basement that lights the other side of the basement that usually "the outsider" after he/she turns on will forget or neglect to turn off...
Needless to say, I have been cussin' out a lotta guests over this...!
-- Dave
The light switch by the front door has two switches one over the other, one for the porch light and the other for the outlet behind the couch to control a lamp, of which an additional outside light would be more practically put there if that were the former homeowners' intentions...
What I really find annoying is that my back hallway has two light switches side by side and someone foreign to what they do flips BOTH of them up, in which case ONE illuminates the basement light and the over-head light in the hall, but the other causes the OUTSIDE LIGHT ot go on!
Now the lighting in the basement is florescent so, yes, there is a delay in the basement being lit, but I have a switch at the foot of the stairs of which someone going up WILL flip that switch to turn off the light down stairs, but the outside light will inadvertently stay on...! And there is a switch in the other side of the basement that lights the other side of the basement that usually "the outsider" after he/she turns on will forget or neglect to turn off...
Needless to say, I have been cussin' out a lotta guests over this...!
-- Dave
