We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Andy Wade
saying something like:

There was an intermediate step between the wooden pattress and the
modern surface mounting box.

Originally wiring accessories for surface mounting had terminals open at
the back and were screwed to the wooden pattress.

Hah. I've come across some of those in in ancient installations. Another
common one here are Bakelite cover / ceramic body incomer 2P switches on
a distribution board. Still plenty of them in use here and were still
being fitted in the late 60s - although I think in those cases it was
the spark using new old stock to use it up.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a

"It's a moron working with power tools.
How much more suspenseful can you get?"
- House