When / why did homes first get electrical outlets?

[gotpasswords]

I’m pretty sure the wires in bob++'s room were pretty warm if he plugged the heater into the light socket. The real mystery is how a five amp circuit didn’t pop when the space heater was plugged in.

Stingy landlords, creating dangerous situations over the decades…

[Broomstick]

@carnivorousplant

Power lines have no insulation to save weight and costs. I’ve thought that in the wall wiring of that type-I misremember the name-came about because the distribution wire had no insulation, and it is safely inside the wall. Probably far enough apart that a rodent in the wall couldn’t short it.

@Musicat

I’ve never seen NO insulation in home wiring (but I’m not an electrician), but I think you are referring to knob and tube wiring. Romex hadn’t been invented yet. Heck, neither had today’s principles of grounding, color coding and safety.

I’ve seen knob-and-tube wiring in place and still being used - the house was built in th early '40’s and was a mix of original knob-and-tube, romex, and other stuff depending on which area had been redone when (if ever). The owner had managed to short out the entire first floor by doing something to the kitchen overhead fixture which also melted a lot of wiring (fortunately, most of it was in conduit), resulted in a long, thin char/singe mark across the ceiling, a body-size dent in the drywall where excited electrons had flung him, and how a fire didn’t burn the place down I have no idea.

I was assisting in re-wiring the entire house to bring it up to modern codes.

@Michael63129

The comments about cigarette lighters in cars makes me wonder just how they came about (Wikipedia doesn’t say much about their history); I mean, why cigarette lighters? Just seems like a silly addition to a car, as if they were so important that cars just had to have one, especially as one of the first(?) accessories to become more or less standard (why not cigarette lighters built into homes?).

@Musicat

I think a hands-free cigarette lighter would be more important in a car than a home, so matches aren’t convenient. And in a car, you are always in front of the lighter; in the dash, you don’t have to worry about finding a loose unit. In a home, if it was mounted somewhere, you’d have to go to it, like home phones were once.

@ZipperJJ

Might not be the fact that people needed cigarette lighters to be in their cars because they didn’t have matches, but they needed a way to light a cigarette with one hand with the window open. You can’t light a match while driving and you can’t do it with the window open. You can light a lighter with one hand while driving but not with the window open.

Windows used to be open a lot more I’m sure, and they weren’t as easy to close. Smoking was more popular too.

I’m just old enough to remember when the blue haze of tobacco was in every indoor location and air conditioning wasn’t standard in most cars. Lots of rolled-down windows back then. Nevermind about the convertibles. Cigarette lighters wouldn’t be blown out by the airstream while you roared down the freeway at 75 mph with open windows.

[carnivorousplant]

@Broomstick

I’m just old enough to remember when the blue haze of tobacco was in every indoor location and air conditioning wasn’t standard in most cars. Lots of rolled-down windows back then. Nevermind about the convertibles. Cigarette lighters wouldn’t be blown out by the airstream while you roared down the freeway at 75 mph with open windows.

There were quarter glass windows. You could open one, and the cigarette smoke would be blown out.