Wiring Finished Houses.
In wiring finished houses, especially wooden ones, the wires can be run along skirting boards, and often pushed out of sight in the space between the floor and the skirting. This is quite permissible, as the wires, unlike electric-light wires, carry no dangerous current; but waterproof wire becomes preferable, as the water used in washing a floor will often creep under and rot the insulation. In going upstairs, wires can often be run in the fluting of a moulding along the stairway, and be quite inconspicuous; but wherever possible, fish the wires up inside the wall. The main thing to be considered in wiring is that the wires are large enough, well insulated, all joints well made and taped and put where there is no danger of injury. Rats have a habit of gnawing paraffin-coated insulation, and it is well to run such in metal tubes. In joining or splicing wires, do it in a thorough manner, and solder if possible. Never use the old bell-hanger joint—the one in which the ends of the wires are merely looped together. Strip insulation and scrape or sand-paper bright about three inches of each wire to be spliced. Then, placing the bare wires across each other about three-quarters of an inch from the insulation, tightly wind the loose bare ends of each around the bare inside portion of the one it is being spliced to. A touch of solder will prevent trouble from oxidation, after the adhesive tape has been wrapped on. Attention to details like these will often ensure the satisfactory working of the job.
A handy tool for gas-lighting wiring is shown in Fig. 25. One end is bored out to fit the small nuts on the ratchet and pendant burners, and the other is filed flat for use as a screw-driver.
Fig. 25.
A case may arise where there is electric light on the same chandelier as the gas lights, and that an insulating bushing has been screwed in between the fixture and the pipe. In this case it will be necessary to run two wires to each burner, the pipe common return being now unavailable. Another scheme is to interpose an insulating bushing under each burner; then the second or return wire need only be run from the burner to the gas pipe outside the main bushing. But the local fire-insurance rules must first be consulted.
Most ceiling gas fixtures will admit of the fixture wire being run inside the brass shell, which makes a neater job. But the very best of insulation must be used, and great care be taken that it be not abraded. It should be shellacked or otherwise insulated before use. The electric-light fixture wires are admirable for use here if there is room.
For concealed work in a finished house, locate the position of the fixture under the floor of the room above by measuring both in the room where the fixture is and in the room above. Then cut out a piece of the floor, drill up from underneath through the fixture plaster-rose with a fine drill, and push the fixture wire up. The main wire can be laid under the carpet, or along the floor-crack in the upstairs room.
In wiring up wall-fixtures, push-buttons, etc., it is often possible to fish the wire up from the floor by punching a hole at the fixture and inserting a piece of chain (made for the purpose), attached to a long and stout thread. Then drill into the skirting near the floor plumb underneath the first hole and fish for the chain with a piece of wire having a hook on the end of it. Where fixtures have brass rosettes, these can be removed by (generally) unscrewing the fixture, but first shut off the gas at the meter, or plug the hole; this may seem unnecessary advice, but experience warrants its being given. When the chain is fished out, a piece of wire can be attached to the thread and pulled through in turn. In most cases its point of exit at the fixture can be concealed by the rosette, through a hole in which it passes. Take care that the edges of this hole do not cut the insulation. Care must be taken at every step in gas-lighting wiring.
In wiring up a push-button, screw all wires tightly under their respective binding screws, and then cover wherever possible with adhesive tape. As the wires must be somewhat loose to allow of the connections being made at the back of the push-button at the wall, they will have to be carefully pushed into the hole, and if they are not tightly held by screws, trouble will result. It is a good plan, when using fine enough wire, to make a sort of eye at the end of the wire and pass the screw through this, instead of merely giving the wire end a turn around the screw and then driving the screw home. Of course washers should be used wherever an ordinary screw holds a bare wire.