redbrickhat wrote:
I live in an old building (1920s) in New York City.


I recently opened up 2 electrical outlets that had been covered up for
at least 30 years. Behind the outlets were 2 wires covered in cloth
braid. At first I thought this type of cabling might be K&T, but a
voltage test showed that the box was grounded, so I guess the wiring is
metal conduit or armored cable.


What is the composition of the cloth braid of these old cables? The
cloth braid looked and felt like cotton, but could it have been
asbestos or another substance?




Thank you.

Sounds that ye old Knob and Tube stuff. I used to own a house that was
full of it. It looked like 18 gauge black cloth or paper wrapped
wires. The wires were run through ceramic tubes where they went
through a stud or joist and were suspended off of the wood surfaces
with ceramic blocks that were nailed down.