Why Would A Light Socket Be In The Floor?
November 13, 2024
source: Jason Denny
So imagine this: You’re tearing up the carpet in your grandparents’ old place, and bam — there’s a light socket. In the floor. Not on the wall, not on the ceiling, but directly on the floor. Your first thought? “Who in their right mind puts a light socket there?” So let’s take a deep dive into this very funky piece of electrical history.
The Flaky Early Days of Electricity: A Wiring Wild West
Electricity was the hot new technology in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Houses were moving from gas lighting to electric, and there wasn’t exactly a one-size-fits-all playbook for how to wire stuff up. Cue the Edison socket, named after Thomas Edison himself. For powering the early electric devices, these screw-in sockets were a standard.
So all this was in service to: but get this: the sockets weren’t just for light bulbs. People would screw in adapters to get power for all kinds of devices — irons, fans, you name it. It was kind of a free-for-all, and safety regulations were, well, still emerging.
Floor Box: Handy Asset or Dangerous Liability?
But why would you put a socket in the floor? Think about it. If you wanted to plug in a lamp in the middle of a room, without running cords across the floor everywhere, then a floor socket was a good idea. This helped keep things neat and minimized the chances of tripping over wires.
But come on, an open electrical socket sitting on the floor is hardly the most secure setup. Impediments to this were spilled food, foot traffic and general wear and tear which made such restrictions well nigh impossible. But as electrical standards transitioned, wall outlets became commonplace and floor sockets fell into disuse.
A personal anecdote: when I found one.
It reminds me of when I used to help a friend renovate an old farmhouse. We were pulling up the linoleum in the living room when we discovered a metal plate. Interested, we pushed it open, and there, a floor socket! We were both baffled. After doing some digging (and laughing), we knew it was a remnant of a different time.
Falling Off the Jacks: The Floor Socket is Back
Believe it or not, floor sockets are not dead yet. Floor outlets power items in contemporary homes, particularly large open-concept spaces, such as recliners, floor lamps and even Christmas trees. The key difference? New floor sockets now come with protective covers and will be installed in low-traffic areas.
Cooking with Gas: A Glance Backward
A light socket in the floor is a time capsule. It provides a glimpse into a time when electricity was still something of a novelty, and homeowners were figuring things out as they went. Used today, we wouldn’t advise you to pull your plugs out of these ancient sockets, but they provide some interesting insight into just how much we’ve achieved in wire safety and standards.
So the next time you encounter a peculiarity like this in your own life, give yourself a moment to appreciate the ingenuity (and sometimes foolhardiness) of our predecessors. Or perhaps, just perhaps, leave that socket as a conversation piece.