Has anyone seen a cutout box like this or ever hear of the manufacturer, Bonnell? This came from the attic of a house that predates electric wiring. It was mounted in the attic, which was where the service, 30 amp 120 volt, entered the house, which was fairly typical for early house wiring, but I've never seen a cutout box like this. Its made of thin cast iron, with preformed 1/2 inch knockouts. The fuse block is not original.
Nice find Roy, but I've never seen anything like that. I have seen the attic service entrance a few times, but the fuse box was always the newer formed metal kind.
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Me too, typical steel, painted black or silver, hinge cover box. I'm thinking that this may have been intended for something more civilized like telephone equipment. If it didn't have the knockouts, I would think something other than electrical altogether. I had contacted David Shapiro, who wrote "Old Electric Wiring", but he's never seen it either
I have seen one like this in Evanston, IL in an old house, pre 1900. The wiring was knob and tube and there were fuses but not the modern porcelain ones you show. These were Bakelite and as I recall there were knife switches to cut the circuits. Your box is a lot fancier than the one I saw that was just plain and not cast. There must have been 7 chimneys in this place with what looked like coal or coke heaters in all of them. Most were walled off. Richard
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