Not true, they were almost always mounted in 1900 boxes at light or outlet
locations and the relays come out the same way they go in. You do have to
remove the fixture and or outlet first.



"Beachcomber" wrote in message
...


Correct. Momentary switches. The 24V is rectified, so
a DC pulse is applied to one winding or the other of the relay.
The relay then latches magnetically and needs no more input power.
A switch anywhere else in the house can then cause the relay to
change state.

A nice application is a large property where outside lights
can be switched on/off from dozens of indoor locations.
Or, a bank of switches can control *any* light in the house from
one location!

The system *did* catch on and was quite popular.
But this was 40 years ago!!


I remember these. It was sort of like an X10 system with wires.

One big problem was maintenance. These were usually installed in a
home during the original construction. The relays were mounted in
electric box cutouts with the relay mechanism outside the box and
inaccessible behind the plasterboard.

If a relay went bad, it was almost impossible to replace it without
smashing a hole in the wall.

The switches also went bad, from time to time. They were really no
more than SPDT momentary doorbell buttons.

Beachcomber