PAALLEGH-L Archives
Archiver > PAALLEGH > 1997-05 > 0864005973
From: "George H. Foster" <>
Subject: RE: [PAALLEGH-L] 1870's - Children's Deaths - Why?
Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 21:39:33 -0400
In-Reply-To: <01BC63CA.5C38C820@pm3-039.greenepa.net>
A short note on the impact of the dirty air in the old days in Pittsburgh.
I own (well, me and the bank) my home in Mt. Lebanon. It was built in
1922. With the exception of some rewiring, the putting in of a central gas
furnace, and some bad work in the kitchen, the house is the same as it was
constructed.
Most of the wiring is Romlex, but nob and tube still exists in the wiring
in the ceiling lights. No real safety problem, if you use the right (60
watt or less) bulbs.
In the hallway there is a beautiful hanging light. The bulb had died, and
I needed to change it. When I took it out, I saw that the insulation on
the light socket was bad, and I needed to change it first.
It was an experience beyond this note, but it led to having to rewire back
up the chain and into the mounting in the ceiling. I had to open, for the
first time since it was installed, the cone that covered the mount in the
ceiling. Black coal dust fell out, the kind of dust you remember from the
time before smoke control. In old houses like mine, it still exists inside
the walls (I found some on Saturday when my brother-in-law and I put a mail
slot in to replace the mail box), and he finds it all the time whenever he
replaces windows in these old places.
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