# What are “drop cords”?



## frenchelectrican

dielectricunion said:


> I found this cool old 1916 electricians invoice under a staircase in the house I’m remodeling. $16 for wiring 2 houses with 5 drop cords each- what a deal!
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> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


It was a old fashion drop light that tied from the old school tube and knob wiring system.

and unforetally it kinda a common spot for light socket to catch on fire due many peoples used the screw in adapator for the plug to fit in due that time there is not many receptales on T&K circuits .,


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## active1

$16.00?
Tell em I'll do it for $14.00 not including the bulbs.
Need 10% deposit to start.


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## matt1124

Call him at 870 and ask.


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## MechanicalDVR

frenchelectrican said:


> It was a old fashion drop light that tied from the old school tube and knob wiring system.
> 
> and unforetally it kinda a common spot for *light socket to catch on fire due many peoples used the screw in adapator* for the plug to fit in due that time there is not many receptales on T&K circuits .,



That brings back memories....

I've seen many times as a youngster where the insulation is burned off the wires coming down to the socket and if you moved the fixture with the power on you'd shower the place with sparks where the wires touched the hanging chain.

Now living down here in the land of 300 year old houses I see plenty of these old crappy drop cords.


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## active1

Evans Electric at 870 said I could have that chump change.
They got a job for $1,884 for electrical equipment at the Indiana University for the new science building.
http://https://books.google.com/books?id=PuJQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA717&lpg=PA717&dq=evans+electric+company+bloomington+indiana&source=bl&ots=naV8akdiH_&sig=b-CGuGsSPf2K3x5QQ75c5bM1ubo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjAtYug74LXAhXhg1QKHWRoBMwQ6AEIPDAF#v=onepage&q=evans%20electric%20company%20bloomington%20indiana&f=false


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## backstay

dielectricunion said:


> I found this cool old 1916 electricians invoice under a staircase in the house I’m remodeling. $16 for wiring 2 houses with 5 drop cords each- what a deal!
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> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


You do realize that was all the wiring a house in 1916 got, just a light in the rooms? There were no receptacles, no other electric appliances.


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## fdew

backstay said:


> You do realize that was all the wiring a house in 1916 got, just a light in the rooms? There were no receptacles, no other electric appliances.


This is correct. At that time the receptacle had not been invented. When the first appliances came out (Coffee pot, waffle iron. clothes iron ETC. They came with a screw in Edison socket and were connected to these drop cords.


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## MechanicalDVR

"Harvey Hubbell designed a “Separable Attachment Plug” that was wired to an appliance and homeowners didn’t have to deal with connecting live wires from the home to the appliance. He later improved his design by making it with one portion that could be left in the socket and the other was a two-prong plug that was attached to the appliance and could be separated from the socket plug. His plug also let you “leave the lights on” while using your appliance. Light-socket connections for appliances persisted into the 1920s. "


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## scotch

And in some homes I've been in for electrical issues recently....they are still in use ! The socket adapter with a two pin outlet on each side....handy for the charger adapter and a bedside light ! You can also hang "cool " mobiles off the cords I was told .
The wall outlet was behind the bed ; unseen and not looked for.....I surprised them with my knowledge !


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## RePhase277

$16 in 1916 is equivalent to about $360 today. I think the customer got a pretty good deal.


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## fdew

MechanicalDVR said:


> "Harvey Hubbell designed a “Separable Attachment Plug” "


I always found it fascinating that Edison had as his goal to replace gas lighting for homes with electric. In order to do it he came up with a practical light bulb, He selected it's brightness based on 100 watts at 1 amp. He threw in 10% for line losses. and thus our 110 volt standard. He decided to run two 110 volt legs with a common neutral to save money and thus our 220 volt standard. He invented the screw base and mating socket, designed switches, insulators, fuses, and everything needed to wire homes and trained the first home electricians but he never thought about using the electricity for home appliances or even movable floor lights. He was totally focused on how gas lighting was done. Not a complaint, I have nothing but admiration for his work, just a observation.


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## Signal1

He wasn't very nice to Topsy though.


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## MechanicalDVR

fdew said:


> I always found it fascinating that Edison had as his goal to replace gas lighting for homes with electric. In order to do it he came up with a practical light bulb, He selected it's brightness based on 100 watts at 1 amp. He threw in 10% for line losses. and thus our 110 volt standard. He decided to run two 110 volt legs with a common neutral to save money and thus our 220 volt standard. He invented the screw base and mating socket, designed switches, insulators, fuses, and everything needed to wire homes and trained the first home electricians but he never thought about using the electricity for home appliances or even movable floor lights. He was totally focused on how gas lighting was done. Not a complaint, I have nothing but admiration for his work, just a observation.


Read up a little more on him and he doesn't sound all that great, he sounds more like someone that ripped off or took advantage of others ideas.


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## Signal1

MechanicalDVR said:


> Read up a little more on him and he doesn't sound all that great, he sounds more like someone that ripped off or took advantage of others ideas.


Yup, he was the DC guy. That's why he liked to electrocute animals with AC, to show everyone that AC was too dangerous.

Edison invented many things but it was Westinghouse, with Tesla's help (after he quit Edison) that really pioneered distribution.


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## MechanicalDVR

Signal1 said:


> Yup, he was the DC guy. That's why he liked to electrocute animals with AC, to show everyone that AC was too dangerous.
> 
> Edison invented many things but it was Westinghouse, with Tesla's help (after he quit Edison) that really pioneered distribution.


Yup, it's all out there for those that want to take the time and read it all.

If one is inclined to read up on Tesla you get that conspiracy theory feeling with the FBI emptying his lab and all after his death.


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## telsa

Edison was sued constantly for such rip-offs.

His split with Tesla was due to Edison renegging on a $50,000 bonus for solving the "infinite bus."

[ Edison was absolutely stumped as to how to really parallel DC generators. Tesla figured out that the only way to establish an infinite bus would be by way of 3-phase A/C. The math was so daunting that Edison rejected it. Tesla, BTW, ALWAYS had a 'thing' for the number 3. He also had the astounding ability to visualize his inventions as functioning machines -- while in a semi-dream state. ]

And, of course, Tesla picked up Edison's bad habits. He also renegged on pledges to this or that party. And got sued, too.

The last blast for Edison was his break with J.P. Morgan. Famous as a banker, most electricians are wholly unaware that he was THE key player ( venture capitalist ) that got our industry rolling.

He forced Edison out of his Edison's General Electric Company. Thomas was so ticked that he demanded that his name be removed. J.P. was only too happy to oblige. The result: The General Electric Company. Yes, that's how it got its name. Edison slapped his name on every enterprise he ever established. Stuff like Edison Power & Light... and so forth. GE got all of the patents that didn't quite fit perfectly in his other companies. Hence the name GENERAL electric.

J.P. was Edison's first customer for lighting. He, J.P. paid Edison to build a custom steam-to-electric plant right on J.P.'s residence -- and then run wires to and fro such that J.P. could awe his guests with a couple of hundred Watts of electric lighting.

It was a sensation, of course.

THIS event triggered the political basis for Edison's Pearl Street power plant. It's original market was -- more or less -- Wall Street. Edison targeted the most elite neighborhood in Manhattan... J.P. Morgan's neighborhood.

&&&

Later, J.P. forced Westinghouse and General Electric to cross-license their patents. He used plenty of dirty tricks to pull this off -- shove this result down their throats.

The result was that these two American electrical giants terrified the rest of the developed world. 

To stop them, European politicians immediately crafted non-tariff barriers -- like 50Hz power -- to block American exports to Europe.

The IEC is the modern variant of this legacy.

For example, the very wire colors have been 'adjusted' over the years to keep them at variance with NEMA standards.

It's gotten to the point that if a given product is suitable for NEMA -- then it's AUTOMATICALLY not acceptable to the IEC. 

Yup.

IEC put yellow banding in its earthing conductor -- precisely to stop American wire imports. ( For decades, American copper was the cheapest in the world. Then Chile came along. )


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## telsa

BTW, the ONE appliance that compelled everyone to electrify: the RADIO.

It was the smart phone for the 1920s.

You couldn't power a radio with gas, gasoline, kerosene or anything but electric power.

And the whole family demanded to have a radio.

In farm country... the radio meant weather reports... tornado warnings... life and death, then.

In the city... the radio meant culture and gossip.

Radios jumped into cars during the 1930s. Read up on Leer and Motorola.

Yes, it was named after Mazola and Motor. ( Per Leer, himself. )

Most fellas today don't know that Motorola was founded to retro-fit radios into cars. 

This was the beginning of love-fests in the back seat of dad's car.


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## fdew

*Edison*

I am aware that Edison was evil wicked mean bad and nasty but I am also aware and impressed that he got a lot of cool stuff into the public hands and created hundreds of thousands or millions of jobs, and made the world a better place. I don't admire him as a person but I do admire what he did.

For a personal roll model from that group I would chose Westinghouse. 

BTW HVDC (High Voltage DC transmission lines are now "a thing"
http://edisontechcenter.org/HVDC.html


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## fdew

BTW Some day I want to own a Tesla Vehicle (Powered by DC batteries, and super charged with up to 525A at 400 volts DC) If I do get one I will get a vanity license plate that reads "EDISON"


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## RePhase277

It is and was a dog-eat-dog world, and Edison was a man just doing what he had to do to survive it, in the wild among even nastier men. I don't care what they say, he was a genius. Yes, he ripped some folks off, but the honest truth is, none of us would live in the technological world we do today if Thomas Edison hadn't existed.

If you want to find a real unsung hero, read about Oliver Heaviside. He was shafted in every way imaginable by the scientific community of the day, but guess what? Turns out he was right and they were wrong. It just a shame that he died before it was recognized.


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## fdew

Another one no one heard of Thomas Davenport
http://www.edisontechcenter.org/DavenportThomas.html

I have the book Thomas Davenport Pioneer Inventor. I think it is a rare book.


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## FaultCurrent

Edison was not only an inventor but a shrewd businessman. Many of his successors did just as he did, hire the best talent, surround himself with innovators, and charge them with developing his ideas. Nothing wrong with that, do you think all the inventions before and since were done one man laboring single-handedly? Undoubtedly Edison got the credit for what his lab produced, but so did Tesla.

Edison let himself be taken in and actually financed the anti-AC campaign by Brown. Eventually he realized he had been taken and later in life regretted he hadn't listened to Tesla.

Tesla had too many personal peccadilloes to be successful. He lent his patents to Westinghouse, and allowed Westinghouse to use Tesla to triumph over competing patents by European Inventors that pre-dated Tesla. Tesla's greatest contributions are largely ignored because of his death ray and other fodder giving rise to the conspiracy theorists.

Now with changing technology DC distribution is quite possible and sometimes desirable. Edison was ahead of his time, although he didn't know it. 

Good stuff for discussion, both great men.

read 

http://www.edisontechcenter.org/tesladebunked.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkn...d-thomas-edison-wasnt-the-devil/#28a9a5bf1a21


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## bigredc222

I saw a show on pbs I think, about Charles Proteus Steinmetz, he was right up there with Tesla as far as genius, and notoriety, he was so famous the three stooges use his name as punch line.
When Einstein introduced his theory of relativity, Steinmetz was one of only three people in the world that understood it.
He figured out a lot of the theories that explain how electric works, before him it was a lot of guesswork.
This is a little youtube video


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## chicken steve

So many icons, so little time....~CS~


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## JRaef

fdew said:


> BTW Some day I want to own a Tesla Vehicle (Powered by DC batteries, and super charged with up to 525A at 400 volts DC) If I do get one I will get a vanity license plate that reads "EDISON"


No, the motors are AC, powered by AC that is CREATED from DC that is stored in batteries. That's why he named it after Tesla; that, and a car company called "Musk" may not have had the same universal appeal...


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## JRaef

Back to the OP's question on drop cords, I found this from around the same era (1920):


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## RICK BOYD

my house was wired in 1914 for $26 by a union shop


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## HackWork

I hope one day they speak of HackWork like you do of Edison and Tesla today.


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## MechanicalDVR

HackWork said:


> I hope one day they speak of HackWork like you do of Edison and Tesla today.


:surprise:

:vs_clap::vs_clap:

:vs_laugh::vs_laugh::vs_laugh::vs_laugh:


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## Pete E

MechanicalDVR said:


> "Harvey Hubbell designed a “Separable Attachment Plug” that was wired to an appliance and homeowners didn’t have to deal with connecting live wires from the home to the appliance. He later improved his design by making it with one portion that could be left in the socket and the other was a two-prong plug that was attached to the appliance and could be separated from the socket plug. His plug also let you “leave the lights on” while using your appliance. Light-socket connections for appliances persisted into the 1920s. "


In older /poorer properties, light socket connections persisted to the 1970's in the UK; in fact as a nipper I can remember my gran having them in her house until it was rewired in the mid/late 70's...


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## MechanicalDVR

Pete E said:


> In older /poorer properties, light socket connections persisted to the 1970's in the UK; in fact as a nipper I can remember my gran having them in her house until it was rewired in the mid/late 70's...


Wow that is something.

I hadn't seen them growing up but saw them much later on in old NY tenements in abandoned rooms used for storage most often.

Some of the old abandoned houses around where I live now also have them hanging there


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## Pete E

MechanicalDVR said:


> Wow that is something.
> 
> I hadn't seen them growing up but saw them much later on in old NY tenements in abandoned rooms used for storage most often.
> 
> Some of the old abandoned houses around where I live now also have them hanging there


My gran's house dated back to the 1930's and was what we term a "council house" ie social housing. The family were dirt poor, the men being coal miners at a time when coal mining was a pretty horrendous and low paid job to have..

The house (2up/2down) had a down stairs bathroom which when it was built was considered quite modern. 

The electrics were a different matter with just one socket outlet in the main rooms along with the ceiling lights. Wiring was all the old rubber sheathed cable run pretty much on the surface. 

At some point the ceiling light in the front room had been fitted with an ancient Bakelite fitting that allowed a couple of appliances to be plugged in at the same time as the light bulb. In fact I can still remember seeing my gran standing underneath it with the iron plugged in ironing the family clothes on wash day!


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## MechanicalDVR

Pete E said:


> My gran's house dated back to the 1930's and was what we term a "council house" ie social housing. The family were dirt poor, the men being coal miners at a time when coal mining was a pretty horrendous and low paid job to have..
> 
> The house (2up/2down) had a down stairs bathroom which when it was built was considered quite modern.
> 
> The electrics were a different matter with just one socket outlet in the main rooms along with the ceiling lights. Wiring was all the old rubber sheathed cable run pretty much on the surface.
> 
> At some point the ceiling light in the front room had been fitted with an ancient Bakelite fitting that allowed a couple of appliances to be plugged in at the same time as the light bulb. In fact I can still remember seeing my gran standing underneath it with the iron plugged in ironing the family clothes on wash day!


I was raised by my Gran that came here from Scotland in the early 1900s as a young teen.

She told me about having no electric in her house growing up when I was a teen and doing some adding of receptacles and lights in her house.

I've been to the house she grew up in and all the 'newly added' electric was surface mounted and that was in 1971.


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## Pete E

MechanicalDVR said:


> I was raised by my Gran that came here from Scotland in the early 1900s as a young teen.
> 
> She told me about having no electric in her house growing up when I was a teen and doing some adding of receptacles and lights in her house.
> 
> I've been to the house she grew up in and all the 'newly added' electric was surface mounted and that was in 1971.


Where abouts in Scotland? 

I am from Wales, but have spent a lot of time in Scotland over the years deer stalking...


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## MechanicalDVR

Pete E said:


> Where abouts in Scotland?
> 
> I am from Wales, but have spent a lot of time in Scotland over the years deer stalking...


Tobermory


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## Pete E

Over on the Isle of Mull? Not been to Mull but been to a couple of the other islands in that area (Islay and Arran)...a beautiful part of the world indeed!


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## MechanicalDVR

Pete E said:


> Over on the Isle of Mull? Not been to Mull but been to a couple of the other islands in that area (Islay and Arran)...a beautiful part of the world indeed!


Yes Sir, her family goes way back in that area.


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## electricguy

I really need to deal with this it is a bare bulb in a closer I want to put on a leviton led fixture with a motion sensor but our inspector says if fixture has a ground wire we can not use it.


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## electricguy

I won these do not have a bond wire https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p....holder-energy-star-kit--white.1000687133.html


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## MDShunk

I can't put my hands on it, but I have an old rubber cord catalog that (in my mind) leads me to believe that drop cord related to the construction type of the cord; ie: intended to be hung. I base that on the fact that they specifically list "drop cord" differently than "trailing cord", intended to be laid upon the ground. In any event, I think they're all outdated terms because cords are constructed to be suitable for a variety of duties in a variety of grades of durability. Naturally, there remains boutique cord types which are constructed for special duties and special conditions, but that's a horse of another color.


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## Trailboss

fdew said:


> I always found it fascinating that Edison had as his goal to replace gas lighting for homes with electric. In order to do it he came up with a practical light bulb, He selected it's brightness based on 100 watts at 1 amp. He threw in 10% for line losses. and thus our 110 volt standard. He decided to run two 110 volt legs with a common neutral to save money and thus our 220 volt standard. He invented the screw base and mating socket, designed switches, insulators, fuses, and everything needed to wire homes and trained the first home electricians but he never thought about using the electricity for home appliances or even movable floor lights. He was totally focused on how gas lighting was done. Not a complaint, I have nothing but admiration for his work, just a observation.


He may have had more foresight if he wasn't expending all his energy trying to crush Tesla and his AC into the ground!


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## fdew

Trailboss said:


> He may have had more foresight if he wasn't expending all his energy trying to crush Tesla and his AC into the ground!


He did take time out to invent recorded sound (Record player) and develop concrete houses, and a couple of hundred things in between, so he did stay busy.


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