[TheForge] Subject: Re: shop power

[Bob Ehrenberger]

This was a new house built in the late 70's or early 80's. It worked but 
didn't seem safe to me.

Robert Ehrenberger
Shelbyville, Mo.
eforge at centurytel.net

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "CGRAF" <adveniam at att.net>
To: "Bob Ehrenberger" <eforge at centurytel.net>; "Blacksmithing List Sponsored 
by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2012 11:46 AM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Subject: Re: shop power


It would have blown the fuse probably.
My whole shop was wired with the switches on the neutral. WAY back they
did it that way. It is very common on buildings wired before about 1920.
I am told that it was done because the knife type contacts in the switch
arced on the hot side. This killed the switches and was also a fire
hazard. My building also originally had fuses on both the hot and
neutral sides .

Mike Graf


On 8/3/2012 11:25 AM, Bob Ehrenberger wrote:
> When I lived in St. Louis, the previous owner had hired someone to remodle
> the basement.  When I went to add a light over my pool table I discovered
> that the whole basement was wired with the hot lead going to the lights 
> and
> the switch on the neutral comming back. To make things worse they made
> provisions to add a light later by putting a wire in the suspended ceiling
> wired the same way, it was not even capped or taped. I hate to think what
> would have happened if that wire had touched the frame grid of the 
> ceiling.
>
> Robert Ehrenberger
> Shelbyville, Mo.
> eforge at centurytel.net
>
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