Look At These Bits of Wire…

“Oh that’s just my old space ship.”   ….”Here, let me show you some of the pieces of wire I used to make my space ship.”    So it was in the first episode of “Futurama” as the professor is showing Fry and Leela around.  It is a scene that is comical on a variety of levels and is ridiculous.  ….walking right past the spaceship to open up a drawer full of old bits of wire.  ….but this is a viewpoint that to the creative tinkerer, makes perfect sense.  The spaceship is a spaceship but the wires can become anything.

I guess that in a way I, too, have a slight wire fetish.  I’m not talking about the usual stuff you buy to wire your house or the arctic superflex cord you use to plug in your car when it is 40 below outside.  I’m talking about the special wire you use in a project when it is going to show and needs to befit the overall design.

It used to be that almost all wire had a cloth outer braid for protection.  Eventually this was abandoned in favor of other materials that had better electrical and abrasion resistance and overall safety.  Today, you can still buy modern insulated wire with a cloth braid cover added for various “retro” style lamps and projects.  I have a multitude of different spools of a few colors that get used for restoration jobs and other projects of my own creation.  You’ll find some of this in my restored hit-and-miss engines, serving as the power cord in some of my old radios that I’ve redone, etc, etc.  Even the high tension leads from my neon shop’s bombarding transformer sport a multicolored cloth braid covered 30kv cable!  Today you can buy this stuff in single conductor, parallel flat cord, a round type, and a twisted pair…..usually 18 gauge for light duty decorative uses.  Often in colors like red, black, brown, green, gold, etc.  BUT….there was one twisted pair color pattern I simply could not find.  Anywhere.  I kept it in the back of my mind to seek out periodically when doing parts and material searches.  For years.  But, no joy.  This was a twisted pair of green/yellow and one of the two wires in the pair also had a red tracer weave in it.

I first encountered this wire in the 1970’s….as part of a wonderful childhood memory.  We had visited a relative in Crockett, TX where my mother was from.  “Ma” had an old fan.  A 1913 Emerson with an ornate base and the six blade Parker fan blade.   This fan was in a sad state of affairs after 60+ years of use and was not only dirty but had a very frayed and unsafe looking cord.  Rather than see her burn down the house, she agreed to give us the old fan and we got her a couple of good new ones as well as doing some other household stuff for her.  We brought the fan home and my mother, my father, and I worked on it.  We completely disassembled it, cleaned it up, polished the brass blades and guard, repainted the housing, and made at least one leather bushing spacer to replace the original inside of the motor.  We also replaced the cords.  At our local hardware store  (Hardware, NOT “home improvement” store!) we found some “modern” (1970’s) twisted pair wire with a cloth covering that was green/yellow and a red tracer.  It was beautiful and definitely befitted the gleaming brass and gloss black finish of this fan.  So we bought it for the project.  Upon getting into this phase of the work, we discovered that the old cord, underneath some of the grime was….you guessed, green/yellow with a red tracer!  Even better!  What we got was, if not original, at least as close to the right stuff that we could get!  The result was simply gorgeous.  I have and have had several vintage fans but none as pretty as this…..not even my 1946 Vornado, an art deco masterpiece which I think is tops.  I still have that 1913 Emerson.  It still works.  And it is still gorgeous!

So….on and off for years, I have looked for this specific type of wire for special projects.  …and couldn’t find it.  Nor could I find anyone at any of the restoration supply places that knew of it.  I almost felt like the kid from “A Christmas Story”…..but instead of a Red Ryder model 200 shot bb gun……..my repeated request was a “spool of cloth braid wire, 18 gauge twisted pair green and yellow with a red tracer in one lead.”   –as I sat grinning only to have the “santa” at the store tell me no such thing existed.  Hmmmpf.

This past week, however, persistence and a good Paypal account paid off (or paid OUT, I should say!…..but like I’ve said before, this is partly what happens when I sell other stuff.)  I found someone who was selling some 10 foot lengths of this stuff off of a spool they had….a spool with a 1977 date, likely from the same factory as what we had used for the fan when I was a kid.  I contacted them and negotiated a price I could live with to buy the entire roll!  It is on its way here now.  Once it arrives, it will work its way into my wire inventory.  Yes, I have an inventory.  Unlike Futurama’s professor Farnsworth, the rolls of my wire stash won’t fit in a drawer and instead occupy a rack in a closet, ready to spool out and cut as needed.  In the not so distant future, you will likely see sections of it appear in some of my newer creations and restorations.

Never mind the time machine……take a look at this roll of wire I used to make the time machine!