Leviton Hanging Bulb Socket

[LarryInMichigan]

This ivory bulb socket was part of a handful of stuff I bought at an estate sale a few months ago.  It is made of plaskon or some similar material and screws together.  There are no threads or a set screw on the part where the power cord enters, so it was apparently intended to hang from the cord.  Does anyone here have any idea of when it might have been made or how much it is worth?  If it has any value, I would like to sell it to someone who will appreciate it.

Thank You


Larry

[Babybearjs]

wow Larry, thats vintage! I used to sell leviton products and never came across an ivory socket. predates me! must be from the 1950's or earlier. Eagle electric was also another brand from day gone by.... now its Cooper electrical products... don't remember when they bought up eagle. check out antique lamp parts and other lamp parts sights on the web... things sure have changed since the 1950's....

[FABphones]

It looks very much like the ceiling socket adaptor used to connect irons.

Irons were plugged into the ceiling fitment where the lightbulb would be, the lightbulb being removed first.

Sometimes a dual fitting was used so the iron could be plugged in alongside the bulb.

IIRC this form of connector, usually Bakelite, dates back to the 1930's.

Not sure if it has any value, I have seen these/similar on auction sites boxed up with an assortment of Bakelite electrical fittings. They have sold for small sums. In ivory, yours might do better.

[countryman]

A socket adapter would need a male thread, wouldn't it?
It looks more like a regular lamp socket with a switch. But it is very unusual that there is no strain relief, especially considering that there is a pulling force required to operate the switch. I don't think that was good practice anywhere.
Maybe the socket was sitting on the end of a metal tube, screwed on with nuts. The fact that the chain is pulled sideways also supports this theory.

But in fact it was not uncommon to use Edison sockets to connect appliances in the early days. I'm not sure this link already is somewhere on CRPF? It's a really nice overview of historic and current plugs worldwide.
https://www.plugsocketmuseum.nl/Overview.html

[FABphones]

A socket adapter would need a male thread, wouldn't it....

I see female to male. Maybe I need glasses... 

——

Further to countryman's post above, I remembered these (image below). New, with prices in the region of $15 for three.

[Key2871]

An 1/8" pipe would be threded in to the end with a cord running inside from a ceiling fixture and the pull chain would be handy to operate the light.
But yours has no tread?, that's odd I've never seen anything with no thread for a nipple or pipe for use as a conduit for the wire. In your pictures I can't see well enough to notice a thread.

These days the very same socket is used on China's lighting made for the US. In brown.
The thread on the top socket holds the shade in place, where a thread is used as with older sockets that were brass or other metal type.

Some table lamps with arms also used this socket to hold a shade via the socket and the 1/8" pipe nipple.
The two shells simply thread together rather then the snap together shells leviton makes now.

[MMikeJBenN27]

This was originally a lamp's light socket.  I have seen these before, a long time ago.  Might be worth something, as you can't buy anything like it brand new today.

Mike

[rdelius]

i have had similar sockets before. Threads would fray  the cloth covered wires  with time. Threaded  sockets would have a bushing like early candlesticks to prevent damage to the wires

[LarryInMichigan]

The base part of this socket definitely has no threads nor a set screw, so I cannot see how it could have possibly been attached to a lamp.  It must have been made to hang from a cord which makes me think that it is rather old.

I have seen power connectors which were designed to screw into bulb sockets on electric fans and other old appliances, and several years ago, I bought a WE candlestick which someone had converted into a lamp and actually had one of those light socket connectors on the end of its power cord.  Someone asked why anyone would want to plug a lamp into a light bulb socket, which was a good question.  I did sell that power connector on ebay for less than I was hoping, but it was worth something.

Larry

[countryman]

It might be mounted to a female threaded tube or another structure with a fitting like this:

[FABphones]

...Someone asked why anyone would want to plug a lamp into a light bulb socket, which was a good question...

I would guess whoever adapted that telephone into a lamp used what they had, and probably thought it was a good gimmick...

....but, originally, properties were wired for illumination, not for appliances. One central ceiling outlet, for a lightbulb, was all a property had, so as electrical appliances began to become available they 'plugged in' via the bulb socket.

I can actually remember as a youngster a relative obtained (I know not where from) one of the aforementioned irons. The iron was way old, silver coloured and shiny (to me anyhow). I can remember her using it. The ironing board had to be placed directly under the bulb socket and the cord from the ceiling would swing furiously as she rushed to get through the chore.

Even though so little, I can remember thinking how dangerous it looked to have so much motion and pulling on that cord. Not to mention having to stand on something to actually reach up and attach to it.

When an appliance was attached, it meant no lightbulb, so no additional lighting. To get around this an 'adapter' was made which allowed for both an appliance and the lightbulb. The second 'socket' sat slightly above the usual lower one, at approximately a 40 deg angle.

...I confess to being a bit of a history buff.

(The Internet has some great information to help us learn and unfortunately, way too much nonsense).

The light socket with pull-chain on/off switch was an invention by Hubbell; patented in 1896 (example C on image below).

This link has some good info and diagrams:
https://www.plugsocketmuseum.nl/NorthAm3.html

[FABphones]

Additional images taken from the *Hubbell Catalogue, 1906.

https://archive.org/details/ElectricalSpecialitiesCatalogueAndPriceListNo.9August1906/mode/2up

Also shown below is their Pull Socket with Lamp Base Attachment. Pages 22/23.

*As the inventor I have concentrated my search here on Hubbell. If you search online, possibly some Leviton catalogues may be available to view.

[Babybearjs]

for all you antique lighting fans, checkout EBAY... under collectables, lighting lamps... etc. I find a lot of beautiful ceramic lamp holders that were used back in the day.... and other vintage lighting.... so many nice objects to remember the old days by....