Damn Volts your good, The stuff was made in General Electric's Sprague
plant. They took sheets of galvanized metal, cut them into strips, and wound
it over the conductors wrapped in the cotton sheath. The problem, as Volts
indicated, was that when they cut the sheets of metal into strips, the edges
were left with no galvanized coating, so they oxidized


"volts500" wrote in message
oups.com...

Marilyn & Bob wrote:

The OP said that he lives in New York City where BX (armored cable) was
required in the 1920s (and still is today). Cloth covered wires with
armored sheathing is standard in older building in NYC. This is not knob
and tube. It is BX and it is grounded (although some may question
whether
the armor provides an adequate ground.

Yep. Back in those days steel BX was intended to prevent vermin from
eating the wire insulation. A manufacturing flaw resulted in rusting
between the spirals of the armor. If used as an equipment grounding
conductor the impedence may very well be high enough that the fuse or
breaker won't trip upon a ground-fault, resulting in a possible fire as
the armor heats up. IMO, the OP would be better off installing a 2
wire receptacle or a GFCI receptacle.