Table lamps. My grandmother used to paint porcelain, and teach others. Many of these were older people with cataracts in their eyes. That requires a lot of lamps to see the fine detail.
BTW, she used an old porch that had been enclosed. There were no 120V receptacles there except the one by the kiln. So, there were a lot of (18 gauge) extension cords too.
So you're saying those old two prong outlets did not have one wider than the other? I thought they always did. I know I always worked with plenty of them, but I'd have to look at one to be sure.
The early ones had the same size slots and some even had T slots that would take a 1-15 and a 2-15. (the first house I lived in had those, built pre wwII) I would not be surprised if there are still some of them in the old parts of our cities.
My new neighbor told me when he had to do rewiring in the attic he found the previous owner had put Band-Aids on some wires, instead of electrical tape.
My last house was built in 1949 and did not have them that I recall, but I could be wrong. When I bought the house in 1966 I changed to grounded
3 prong.
I found this: Homes built before the 1960?s had most of their original 125 V receptacle outlets of the non-grounding type (2-prong) (see Fig. 14). In
1947, the Code first required grounding type (3-prong) receptacles for the laundry. In 1956 the required use of grounding type receptacles was extended to basements, garages, outdoors and other areas where a person might be standing on ground. Finally, in 1962 the Code was revised to require all branch circuits to include a grounding conductor or ground path to which the grounding contacts of the receptacle must be connected. That effectively discontinued the use of non-grounding type receptacles except for replacement use in existing installations were a grounding means might not exist.
These are the locations in and around the home when GFCIs were first required:
1968 - Swimming Pool Underwater Lighting
1971 - Receptacles Near Swimming Pools
1973 - Outdoor Receptacles
1975 - Bathroom Receptacles
1978 - Garage Receptacles
1981 - Whirlpools and Tubs
1987 - Receptacles Near Kitchen Sinks
1990 - Receptacles in Unfinished Basements and Crawl Spaces
1993 - Receptacles Near Wet Bar Sinks
1996 - All Kitchen Counter-Top Receptacles
2005 - Receptacles Near Laundry and Utility Sinks
When my parents moved to Denton in 1967, they stayed in an old apartment. The receptacles were duplex, but only one side was usable. IIRC, one had T slots like you described, and the other just had horizontal slots (both of them).
Not as relevant, but the apartment I lived in in Brooklyn, which was built as luxury in 1930 had non-remarkable duplex outlets in all the other rooms, but in my room, which was meant to be the maid's room, the receptacle was unisex, or unex, or whatever is not duplex. But the slots were parallel and I don't remember if one was longer than another. I would have replaced it but it had 5 or more coats of paint after 40 years, and I thought I'd make a mess taking off the plate.
Another way of looking at this would be if there would be a problem with a race between two switches opening near simultaneously, one on the hot, one on the neutral, then why isn't there a problem right now, where you have only one switch opening, with no switch at all on the neutral? There are also 240V GFCI where circuits can have a switch on each wire and they don't trip. Like you say, the electrodynamics of any of those effects are way below what a GFCI is looking at.
We had an Emerson radio from the 40's. A chip was missing from the case, and it sat on a metal set of shelves, so the chassis touched the metal shelf. We also had chrome trim around the formica kitchen counter (before they used formica in the front), and when I touched both the shelf and the trim, I'd get a small tingle. (Nothing like a full 110 volts. I've had that too.) My mother never mentioned this and I was too stupid to figure out the problem or fix it.
I still have the radio. Maybe I should change the plug.
They used to put a small capacitor and/or high value resistor between the incoming power and the chassis. I can't remember why - maybe someone here will know. It allowed a small current to flow which would give you that tingling feeling if you lightly rubbed your fingers across the chassis.
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