Thanks Bob,

I still haven't gotten around to taking off the lighting fixture itself. If
necessary, I'll try to get to it tomorrow while there's still adequate
ambient light.

I opened the switch again though. Here's what I see, and the colors are a
bit different than I thought at first.

There's a black cable coming into the box. As far as I can see into it
(till it vanishes into the wall) there are 3 wires emerging from that cable.
One is black, and one is sorta burnt orange. There are the 2 which are
connected to the switch. The third wire is red (for sure), and it's
attached with a screw to the back of the box itself, not to the switch.

I took pictures, but not posting here because this is not a binaries group.
If anyone would like to see them, and of course I'd appreciate the help,
please let me know and I'll send out a couple of small (but detailed) jpegs.

Thanks again,

Sparky

Marilyn and Bob wrote:
Sparky,
Let's try this again. You asked what you thought was a simple
question, but what you described as the wire colors in the box is so
non-standard (and was non-standard in 1950) that people are having
difficulty understand what is actually in the box your switch is in.
What is important here is that if there is no neutral wire in that
box (a distinct possibility) there is NO WAY you can put an outlet
there without a rewiring job which would add that neutral wire, which
you say you are not prepared to do.

"Sparky" wrote in message
...
Thanks Jim, I'll pull it off the wall tomorrow and let you know.

Jim Thompson wrote:
On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 00:02:59 GMT, "Sparky"
wrote:

Thanks, but I can't open the wall to run another wire. All I see
is a thick cable running into the switch box.. out of that comes
the 3 wires. Nothing really I can do to run a new wire between the
fixture and the switch.

[snip]

We really need to know what's in the fixture. Once we know that we
can suggest some tests to figure out how it's wired.

...Jim Thompson
James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.