Ann,
I can direct you to someone who wrote her Master Thesis on the early
electrical industry in St. Paul and on the installation of electricity at the
James J. Hill House.  I found it interesting in that it presented the
information from the point of view of the challenges of an emerging industry
where it is impossible to identify the technologies that will surive the shake
out that will come with standardization.  I found it relavant to some of
today's technological change.  I also found it helpful to understand why
people fear the things I tend to embrace.  Don't know if you'll find it useful
or not

-jc



Anne Sullivan wrote:

> Help me friends,
>
> I'm writing an Historic Structure Report, and am trying to date the various
> electrification campaigns.  Do you have any leads for where I can get
> information about early electrical switches (i.e. dating them)?  Or patent
> information for light switches?  I've got the knob and tube info, but can't
> seem to find anything about switches.  We also have surface applied wood
> tracks in which the electrical wiring runs.  I've never seen that before
> either.
>
> Thanks from Chicago,
> Anne the Architect