The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

Practical Electricity And House Wiring

If the wire is stranded, solder or at least twist the individual strands together before forming the loop.

Screw back the terminal screw, hook the loop around the screw in such a way that tightening the screw will tend to close the loop, rather than open it. A glance at Fig. 60 will show right and wrong way. Before the screw is tightened, the loop can frequently be closed completely around the screw by pinching together with a pair of pliers.

Joining Wires.—In actual house wiring it is frequently necessary to join two or more wires. If the ends of two wires are joined together, the operation is called a "splice." If however, a second wire is joined to another continuous piece of wire, this is called a "tap."

Taps and splices must be so made that the job when finished will be as strong mechanically as a continuous piece of wire, and will electrically have the same insulation as before the operation. In order to do this it is necessary to solder the wires, and then to replace the insulation that was removed to lay bare the conductor.

Splices.—Before we can splice two wires, the insulation must be first removed. We will proceed as outlined in the first paragraph, except hold the knife at a smaller angle, so that the insulation tapers off gradually as shown in Fig. 61. In the same illustration note that the outer fabric covering has been removed from over the top of the insulation, for half an inch or so.

When we have finished we will have about three inches of bare conductor, more if the wire is a very heavy gauge. Then we will very carefully scrape off all traces of the rubber insulation, so that the wire will be bright and clean. If we are very careful, we can remove all traces of the insulation, and still leave intact the thin layer of tin which was placed over the copper in manufacture, which will make soldering easy. This done, we will twist the two wires one about the other as shown in successive stages in Fig. 62, and when this twisting is finished, we are ready to solder.