In my 90 year old house, I had a switch on the 2nd floor near a bathroom that was 24 inches off the floor. There was another switch in the entry closet 24 inches off the floor. They are both 3-way switches, connected together. When I pulled them and their wiring out of the walls they were not controlling anything (no connection to any lights or other electrified objects). I assume at one point they were for something. Anyone have any ideas?
Curious in Iowa
Replies
In early attempts to gainfully employ the vertically challeged, many trades were considered and tried.
If you look into the wall cavities you'll find that Leroy P. Anderson signed all his work.
He was finally employed as a tunnel digger because he couldn't measure up -
high enough.
Edited 10/14/2005 12:53 am ET by RalphWicklund
While your explanation is correct you left out a few details that would give David a more thorough picture.
Leroy as it turns out was only 3' 3" tall. In the era in which he attempted to work the trades there were few standard heights, lengths etc. They were simply a rule of thumb set by the builder, electrician, plumber etc.
Leroy in his numerous attempts to find a trade that suited his personality and physical issues would often be given instruction such as "just put that in at a normal belt height". Thus the problems.
During the early years of plumbing he had some early success with installation of wall hung sinks as he could easily work under them and the supply valves were a nice height for him but once the shower became poplular he no longer could deal with having to be up so high to run the piping and make the needed connections for the shower head. You see Leroy was also afraid of heights and ladders. And that is ultimately what drove him under ground. DanT
Could have been some sort of semaphore system, I suppose. Though I can't think of an obvious specific function. "Milk is here" would have had one switch (and the light) in the kitchen, one would think.
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Maybe the switches were for someone in a wheelchair? Would also make sense for the one near the bathroom if it turned on a light in the bathroom so the person could turn light on before entering and not have to jocky the wheel chair around as much--but if door widths were standard and bathroom normal size, a wheelchair couldn't get in, so I'm probably wrong. Bump. Or badda-bump.
Yeah, the wheelchair idea is a good one. One set of annunciator lights that can be turned on by the person in the WC, whether in the WC or the entry.
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The only thing that makes me think it wasn't for wheel chair access is that it was on the 2nd floor - unless the 90 YO house had elevators...
Good point. Though they could have been to call a butler.It would have been helpful to know where the wires ran.
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> Maybe the switches were for someone in a wheelchair?
Look at the door jambs and casing. There may be deep matching gouges all around if someone used a wheelchair in the house for a long time.
-- J.S.
I dunno, but I had a switch like that in my old house..I'd flip it on and off a zillion times trying to figgure it out..one night I I call from a woman in Germany...she said " Knock it OFF"...LOL Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Money don't talk, It Curses
(the other Bob)
Yeah, you and Boss Hog are stealin' Steven Wright's stuff. I checked with my buddy today on the stoves and as he put it "I don't have anything in stock I'd sell a friend". Sorry. Hey I came home from the track $53 richer than when I left home.Birth, school, work, death.....................
Imitation is the highest form of flattery..thats why I am a copper dude right? LOL
Good on ya at the track! I gotta get there sometime, I have been a resident for two yrs almost to the day...never did more than drive by Keeneland.
I'll be able to wait out the backorder on the Vogelzang...if it gets extreme, I'll put the barrel back in temporarily.
All set for the muchacos to tear down and clean up...better givem a magnet, there are a kazillion screws everywhere,they missed the first time. Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Money don't talk, It Curses
(the other Bob)
Thanks for all the suggestions, serious and humorous. I can't imagine they were for wheelchair access in this house. No way to get up and down. I'm not sure about the explanation to shut everything off either, but that is the best one I've read. It would explain why the 2 switches were not wired to anything but each other and the breaker. Thanks!
I am wondering about some kind of dumb waiter.You could put in a tray and then trip the switch to indicate to the other floor that it is ready.Don't have any idea if there was any space for a dumb waiter or not.
There is a laundry chute, but it looks original and there is no other space for the DW. Good thought however.
Thank you Steven Wright, who originally wrote it that he received a letter from the woman in Germany telling him to "Knock It Off!".
Of course, that was right after he bought a new phone, took it home, unpacked it, connected it to the telephone jack and plugged it in to the electrical socket. Next thing he did was hit "Redial". Drove the phone crazy.Griff
Was that called "I have a pony"? I have it on cassette somewhere.
My favorite was when he met the Blond oriental nympho...LOL Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"We adore chaos, because we love to restore order"
Mauriets Chavailier Escher
Don't remenber the name of the albulm, but that sounds familiar.
How about: I woke up in my apartment and realized that during the night everything had been stolen and replaced with an exact duplicate. So I called my friend Harold over and said: "Look, everything in my apartment was stolen overnight and replaced by an exact duplicate." Harold looked at me and asked "Do I know you?"
Weird, funny sense of humor with expert timing. Twists everyday things into a joke.
"The sign said 'Breakfast Anytime', So I order French Toast during the Revolution."Griff
" hey, I went to a store.l.it said "open 24 hours"...it was closed..I axed the guy wassup....it says "open 24 hours"??
He said " not IN A ROW'..
I put the key in my house door, it started, so i drove it around the block, the cops pulled me over..they said what ya doing, I said " I live here"..
I live on a median strip..it's ok as long as yer doing 65 out the driveway..
Don't get me going, please. Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"We adore chaos, because we love to restore order"
Mauriets Chavailier Escher
The switches were for the munchkins to turn on the lights . I have seen switch plates with strings that hang down for the little rug rats .
What makes the Teflon stick to the pan?
Not much, apparantly. It tends to come off, especially the early versions of it.
-- J.S.
Look at the door jambs and casing. There may be deep matching gouges all around if someone used a wheelchair in the house for a long time.
Don't I know it--neighbor down the street uses a wheelchair and about every other month he asks me to come over and paint all the stuff he's knicked and bumped and worn by smashing his wheelchair into it! I paint it and the next week it all looks the same as before I started. I've put kick plates all over the doors, but I'd have to armor plate the whole house from the floor up to two feet to do any good! I guess I have guaranteed employment (though sporadic) for a while though.
As the original post (not my post BTW) said this was on second floor, it's probably not a switch for use by someone in a wheel chair, although some people did have those jump seat things that were pulled up a track along the edge of the stairs, but there would be evidence of that to.
Glad to see you've gotten so many useful suggestions. (-:
The only mildly intelligent thought I can come up with is that maybe they were "foot switches". Like if someone had their hands full, they could flip the switch with their toe instead of their elbow.
But that sounds a little far fetched. But people do all kinds of wierd things...
When my dad built our house, he put the master BR door knob 24" high.
So us kids could open it.
SamT
If I were to build a house, I would put the MB knobs at 48" to keep the kids out ;-)
" I would put the MB knobs at 48" to keep the kids out"
Reminds me of this tag line:
Vaseline is great for sex - You put it on the doorknob so the kids can't get in.
Yeah, but kid's sticky hands can overcome a vaseline-greased doorknob. ;)costofwar.com/
central vac?
Wow, This is strange! My grandmothers house probably built in the same period also had two swithes located in the hall at the top of the stairs that know body seemed to know what the where for or why they where so low. My dad always said they where low because they ran out of wire.
Ah! I'll bet that the switches were rigged to turn off/on most of the lights in the house. You'd want to do that when leaving the house and when going to bed at night. Their position kept them from being treated like "normal" switches.No one trusted the electrical stuff to not cause a fire (possibly for good reason), so they wanted as much stuff as possible shut off.
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DanH,
I think you are right! The service was upgraded at some point (don't know when) and the switches where eliminated!
Re: ..."the switches were rigged to turn off/on most of the lights in the house."Yours explanation seems to be the best offered so far.Mounting the switches at an odd elevation is also a common way of differentiating them from normal use. I do the same for the 'vacation' switch that disconnects power from the garage door opener. Usually I put it next to the side door at about 6'.I can also testify that many folks were indeed afraid of the dangers of electricity so the ability to turn off the power leaving the home and going to bed would seem an attractive option. My only question is how would it be done? I suppose in the early 30s it would be a lot easier. Many homes had a simple 60A service and some, I have seen a few of there ancients, that were both 60A and 120v only. If this was a small service, especially 120v only and there was no refrigerator or freeezer, it would be simple enough to insert a relay into the feed to the main panel so that he only power remaining would be the feed to the three-way switches controlling the relay. Larger latching relays can get expensive.In fact it makes some sense if the occupants had memory problems. No need to worry if you unplugged the iron when you drive off to work if you killed the power when you left. It would also pay to make both switches an indicator light sort so that you know the power is off. In fact I think I would go for an industrial two-color version or a lit switch and separate indicator. So you know the power is off but the switch is still lit. Easier to find a lit switch in a house without power.
I would imagine that the switch was directly in series with a 30A or so service, or in series with the only lighting circuit off the fuse box. A 1900-era house generally would have had only 120V service and would have been wired with at most 4 circuits.--------------
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Re the two switches at the top of the stairs, I wouldn't be surprised if they were installed at separate times, the second one going in when the home was converted to 240V.
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No electrons were harmed in the making of this post.