Ceramic pipe used as a cable conduit

Porcelain lead-in tube, comprising length of ceramic pipe used for cable conduit to allow electricity supply cables to enter through masonry house walls. With bell drip ends. White porcelain tube with curved end.

Part of the Bob Gray collection of electrical objects.

Because the cables were a loose fit in the tube they could be changed without having to make a new hole in the wall. Before electric drills allowed accurate holes to be created quickly and easily in masonry walls, houses receiving an electricity supply for the first time had holes knocked into the walls with cold chisels. Tubes like these were then cemented in the holes ready to receive electricity supply