David Nebenzahl wrote:
N8N spake thus:

Somewhat related but not as dangerous, I have found in my old house
several instances where two switches share a wall box. It seems that
it must have been common practice to take the "hot" wire, strip about
3/4" or so of insulation, and wrap it around the terminal on one
switch, then terminate the end of the wire at the other switch. Not
sure why this was done, perhaps large size wire nuts were not available
at the time? (late 40's) apparently wire nuts were available as I have
found several that appear to be original splicing the neutrals
together. In cases where I have found switches arranged as I describe
above, I have replaced this setup with a pigtail of new wire and a red
or yellow wire nut as appropriate.

Why?

Assuming everything is in good condition--no loose insulation, loose
wire strands, etc.--what's wrong with this method? I probably wouldn't
use it for new wiring, but it's perfectly safe.

Because I am systematically going through and replacing all of the
receptacles in the house, because a significant number of them don't
hold a plug securely and/or show sogns of cracking or burning. I
realize that has absolutely zip to do with switches, but when I
explained this to She Who Must Be Obeyed, she expressed a preference
for white receptacles and plates, so all of the switches are getting
replaced as well. Since this is 60-year-old cloth covered wire, I
figured that adding pigtails so the next time I need to poke around in
that box I'm not flexing the cloth covered wiring might prevent future
issues.

In SWMBO's defense, the previous devices were a schizophrenic mix of
ivory and brown and nothing basically matched, and the white does look
better against the walls in the house which are basically very lightly
tinted pure white. (one room is pure white with a faint green tint,
another is a faint blue tint, etc... I would have never thought to
paint a house like this, the previous owners picked the colors and I
have to say it does maintain an open, airy feel which is important with
small rooms without falling into the trap of painting everything
"rental white.")

nate