What is this thing? 1926 home, unknown "thing" behind outlet box plate

[1926home]

To begin - I have little electrical experience beyond general knowledge, am just a curious homeowner who doesn't know what this thing is. I'm in the eastern half of the US.

It's hidden behind a blank outlet plate in the living room, house was built in 1926. There's another blank plate directly below it, which only hides a couple of wires, which appear to be original cloth-wrapped, so this likely dates to the early days of this house.
I did a reverse image search on google, along with some other queries, but could not find anything similar to it. Any clue as to what it could be?

Thanks all.

 

[James]

Could be the back of a light switch, with some of the parts missing.

 

[littlespark]

Looks to me like an old switch box… I think now they’re more square and deeper.

Rather than remove it, they’ve just hit it with a hammer to flatten everything behind the surface level of the wall.

Is this by a door, where you would expect a light switch to be, or would it be a switch for the outlet below?
I see the same cloth wrapped cables in this box

 

[1926home]

Well here's the thing, it's nowhere near where you'd expect a lightswitch to be. It's near a corner of the living room, near the floor. It's more where you'd expect an outlet to be.
It's near where we have a TV mounted to the wall now, however this obviously predates the modern "media setup" and where we have the TV today was a bookshelf when we moved in.

It is flush with the wall already, or close to it. It just has a blank cover plate installed right now.
The cloth wrapped cable in the bottom left is different from what's behind the plate right below it, that cable has a dark gray/black cloth wrap and is much thicker.

 

[littlespark]

is it an old house? (by username, im guessing 99 years?) Could the door have been moved sometime in the past and this was the old switch position...

 

[1926home]

The house was build in 1926, so yes, quite old. We had a theory at one point that the bookshelf used to be a doorway, but we had ruled that out as a sewer stack runs directly down where the doorway would have been, had it been there.
Either way, it's too close to the floor (about a foot up from it) to have been a lightswitch, at least, a typical one.

 

[littlespark]

have you got a photo showing this, the box below, and the floor... to give us an idea of height?

A foot up off the floor would be standard for an outlet... but are switxch and outlet boxes more or less the same shape?

The bracket with the hole in the middle throws me a bit... possible push button? Maybe a servant call button? ( i dont know how big this house is!) but doesnt explain how low it is to the floor

@Megawatt we might need you on this one, if youre still around

 

[1926home]

Once I'm home this afternoon, I'll take more photos, test to see if the terminals are still live, and see if the center hole is a push-button. The house is four bedroom, and did at one point have a servant call system, way back in the day. There's a button mounted in the center of the floor of the dining room. There's another button, in the living room by the doorway if I'm remembering correctly. This button is at the normal height you'd expect a lightswitch to be, and is less wide than a normal outlet or lightswitch box. Based on that, I wouldn't think this was another such button, especially given its odd location, and the fact that there is already a call button in the living room.

 

[James]

I wonder if it was a speaker jack, if the HiFi was in that corner of the room, it may have been to power a speaker or speakers elsewhere, are there any other similar blank plates?

 

[Carolina]

Hi. It looks like it's a ceramic piece inside the box, and then part of a switch.
Try to pull it out using pliers, do remove the fuse or turn off the breaker just in case those exposed wires are carrying power, they shouldn't, but you never know.

I found ancient parts at home too, in boxes hidden behind wood paneling, the fun part is they were still wired and hot, two edison sockets, 3 more new-ish (1920s) sockets, and some more junction boxes, all cloth wire, it didn't short or caught fire because it remained undisturbed for pretty much a century.

 

[1926home]

 

[1926home]

New images.
1. Height from the floor. Top box is where the mystery thing is, bottom box has the two wires, a crumbled up paper of some sort, and nothing else.
2 and 3: alternate better lit angles of the thing. The hole in the middle is empty and goes clear through to the other side seemingly. There are three screw terminals, which seems odd for something of this era. It is not live.
4. Behind the lower of the two plates. The whole house has knob and tube so this is no surprise.
5. The old non-functional call button, in the living room, next to the doorway, at lightswitch height.

 

[1926home]

I wonder if it was a speaker jack, if the HiFi was in that corner of the room, it may have been to power a speaker or speakers elsewhere, are there any other similar blank plates?

Doesn't look like it could have been one, just too old.

 

[brianmoooore]

Rotary switch for the outlet below.