house was built about 1960 and prewired for telephone. i assume by the telco because it was 1960.
the wiring through out the house is about 6 or 8 pair of wires.
the wiring from within the house into the interconnect box outside is a 2 pair cable.
I can’t find a place where there is a transition from a 2 pair cable into the loose pairs of wires.
Is it possible they buried the splice in the wall?
bobl Volo, non valeo
“But when you’re a kibbutzer and have no responsibility to decide the facts and apply the law, you can reach any conclusion you want because it doesn’t matter.” SHG
Replies
I'd call the phone company's service department for the answer to that question. They may even have a record on that house.
I've had helpful reponses from all utilities' service people over the years.
Edited 9/8/2008 11:51 am by Hudson Valley Carpenter
"the wiring through out the house is about 6 or 8 pair of wires."
That is not standard wiring of that age. It would have been 3 wire or 4 wire not twisted.
Or 25 pair for commercial.
And modern wiring is only 4 pair or less.
The orginal installation would not have used a demark box. If you had a basement the wire outside line would have come into the house to a protector block. From their the hosue connections are made.
If the basement is finished then that gets covered up.
And it is not unlikely that there are other telephone splices and cable spliters that are run in basement ceilings and latter covered up.
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
When my parents' old farmhouse was gutted and rewired in 1966 it was wired with 6-wire cable, no sheath, loosely twisted.
In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. --Carl Sagan
Was that by Bell?.
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
It was common in different areas and different Bell Operating Companies to use any of the available wires for pre-wiring or station installation in residences. These include:
quad (four wires (red, green, black, yellow) twisted around a common axis),
both jacketed and non-jacketed three pair (blue/white, orange/white, and green/white),
jacketed and non-jacketed four pair (blue/white, orange/white, and green/white, brown/white)
The wires were usually 24 ga.
Common pre-wiring started at the basement protector and looped to the kitchen, dining room, family room and then on to the second floor rooms. The wire would be pulled into a box or wiring frame that the jacks would mount to. It would be folded over so a six to eight inch loop would be available for termination to the jack. The insulation was stripped back a little and wire was wrapped 2/3 of the way around the screw. The wire usually would not be cut so it would continue to the "downstream" jacks.
The installers' management stressed that the least amount of wire be used, so very few "home-runs" were installed at the time.
Both round and rectangular boxes and faceplates were used. Sometimes no boxes were used; the wire would simply be pulled through a hole in the drywall - the subscriber would be stuck with covering the holes. When this happened many people would push the wire back into the wall and patch the drywall. This left many loops covered in walls.
The phone companies usually provided free prewiring. At that time subscribers were charged a monthly fee for each phone that was installed. Each additional phone was 75 cents a month.
Hope this helps...
Yep, Susie (South-Central) Bell.
In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. --Carl Sagan
"the wiring through out the house is about 6 or 8 pair of wires"
"I can't find a place where there is a transition from a 2 pair cable into the loose pairs of wires."
I doubt that the Telco wired your house inside. More likely the contractor did.
Did you mean to say that those paired wires are loose, not sheathed? That definitely would not be a Telco install. Standard telephone wiring cable types back then were 2-pair, 3-pair, 4-pair, 8-pair, 12-pair, 25-pair and 100-pair - all bundled in a plastic sheath for easy pulling. 2 or 3-pair was most common for residential. If you pull the wires out of one of those boxes you may find that you have 8-pairs bundled in a sheath.
Is there no splice box on the outside of the house or embedded in the outside wall? If someone drywalled over a splice inside somewhere, you may be able to find the path of the wiring with a toner (HD sells them) turned all the way up. Start inside, opposite to where the Telco wire comes into the house.
Good luck
BruceT
Edited 9/8/2008 12:49 pm by brucet9
3 wire was also used.Used for selective ring on party lines..
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Bruce - how does a toner work -- I have 3 phones that are out and I think I know where but if there is a gizmo that will assist/shorten the work I'd like to give it a try -- Tks Dudley
A toner has a "generator" that produces a tone that when connected to wire produces an electric field.And a receiver that is basically just an amplier that detects the electric field.Basic Tempo kit (transmitter, receiver, and case) runs about $90-100 at HD and Lowes. The work on lines with out power or loads. There main purpose is to identify specific wires in a bundle with several wires.But they have a range of a few inches so sometimes can be used to trace wires through walls and where there is a break.There are more expensive ones that can trace hot wire and have longer range. But you are getting intothe several hundred dollar range..
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
You don't say whether yours is one or two story house. My 1965 house was one story with underground utilities, so there is an access box in an outside wall where Telco cable is connected to in-house cables that then run up into the attic before dropping down inside the walls to each room. Likely you've already checked out that possibility, but if not...
BruceT
"Did you mean to say that those paired wires are loose,"yes, they are loosethey come out of the top plate right above where the sheathed 4 wire cable exits the house on the out side.
bobl Volo, non valeo
Baloney detecter WFR
"But when you're a kibbutzer and have no responsibility to decide the facts and apply the law, you can reach any conclusion you want because it doesn't matter." SHG