A HOMEOWNER has uncovered a fascinating piece of social history on her property that goes back 100 years.
She was initially puzzled to find a lightbulb socket at the foot of her stairs in her home.
But the discovery prompted her to research this architectural feature a little more and she was amazed by the trivia she learned.
What Valerie (@notboredindc) had actually found represented a transitional moment in domestic living, when households began to move away from gas and onto electricity.
This TikToker was thrilled and intrigued by her find.
“Behind this flap is a light socket,” she said in her post. “But why does there need to be a light socket at the bottom of my stairs?”
New homes being built in the 1920s were trying to keep ahead of the curve and started to install rudimentary power sockets to attract potential buyers.
Valerie explained more: “When homes were being electrified, one of the main selling points was changing from gas lighting to electric lighting for convenience.
“That meant every house that had electricity had a light socket.”
Manufacturers had to think about how home appliances could be electrified for use in the home with this new power source.
“And since everyone had a light socket they would make light socket plugs,” explained Valerie.
“Those home appliances like [an] iron would be plugged directly into the light socket in the wall or ceiling.”
With a simple adaptor, she could still use the socket today but did warn it wasn’t suitable for modern appliances.
There was a lot of interest in her post – it attracted 261,000 likes.
“The 1924 house I grew up in had one of these on either end of the fireplace mantel. I always wondered,” said one person.
“My nan used to iron using the light socket still in the 1990s,” was the extraordinary response of a second person.
But there was a word of caution from another viewer: “Don’t plug anything that uses a lot of power into that socket. Light fittings and plugs should have different fuse ratings.”
