Shoutout to the old timer who showed me a 1950s code book

I was cleaning out my grandfather's garage in Akron last weekend and found a box of his old electrical manuals. One was a 1954 National Electrical Code book. I flipped through it and the wire ampacity tables for 12 gauge copper were based on rubber insulation, not the PVC we use now. The allowed current was almost 30% lower for the same wire size. Found a note in the margin in his handwriting that said 'Don't trust this for new work, ask the supply house.' It really shows how much the materials have changed the rules. Has anyone else run into old code that would be totally unsafe by today's standards?

3 comments

3 Comments

quinn3772mo ago

That note about not trusting it for new work is classic grandpa wisdom. I once tried to follow a 60s era diagram for a three way switch and ended up making a light that only turned on if you jiggled the fuse box. My place looked like a disco for a week. It's wild how a book of rules can turn into a history lesson on why we don't do things that way anymore.

the_sarah2mo ago

Wow, that's a solid find! I had a similar thing with my dad's old motor manuals, and like @quinn377 learned, sometimes you just gotta ask someone who knows the new stuff.

rivera.susan13d ago

Did you catch that article in the old Popular Mechanics archive about how they used to wire houses with cloth covered wire? I stumbled on it last week and it's a mess. Those old manuals are full of stuff that would get you killed today. The whole "ground everything" concept was basically optional back then. My grandpa had a trick for testing circuits by licking his fingers and touching the wires. Different world, man. You're right about asking someone who knows modern code. I'd rather not burn my house down for the sake of nostalgia.