It's a "puzzle"....many different ones were made with lots of different scenes.....some just had solid colors on the sides of the blocks so they could make many different patterns. Wish I could give you a time frame....but I suspect they were made from the early 20th century on. Linda C

Very funny - in retrospect of course. Your story reminds me of the year my turkey was cooking very well until I opened the oven door to baste, only to find that the oven died. DH rushed the turkey over to my inlaws to finish cooking. Sides were modified to cook on the stove top and grill. However, that year was a breeze compared to the Thanksgiving that we required a visit from our local fire department. I am still trying to block that particular memory. LOL Thank you for sharing your story. I always try to remember my mom's mantra: when God gives you lemons, make lemonade!

Yea I'm looking for utilitarian too but I'm trying to stay away from plastic and ceramic made in china. I do use plastic all the time, just trying to use something else if I have choice. On eBay they have those old spun aluminum canisters. I've been wondering how well they seal. There's an auction now for a set that's brand new never out of the box. Sort of ugly but they aren't for the counter. Wish I new more about them.

The old type R and RH had rubber insulation covered with cloth braid. That's what you appear to have there. No point in being afraid of K&T. If you take apart that rosette, you'll be face to face with it. What kind of shape it's in depends on how it's been treated. In areas with lots of industrial pollution, the rubber can degrade pretty badly. Overlamping luminaires also generates excessive heat, which dries out the rubber, but that's probably not an issue here. Either way, if the rubber goes bad, yes it can literally crumble off the wire. The big problem here though is that if you remove that rosette, you won't have enough wire length to safely bring the wires into a conventional junction box. And if they turn out to be in rough condition, you are right out of luck. Thus your only course short of rewiring is to open up that duct so you can get to the other K&T feed wire, and replace both wires back to where they tap into the K&T at the knobs. I'm pretty sure that would be a code violation. If you pull a permit, I strongly doubt that your AHJ would pass it. Speaking theoretically now, as I don't advocate code violations, you'd use modern THHN for the tap wires. To get them to a new box, you'd need more loom (the woven outer tube covering the wire for extra protection) than what's already there. I know of no place to buy approved K&T loom today. Again speaking theoretically, I'd use the formerly approved alternative method, and cover each wire with jacket stripped from NM cable. Remember to leave at least 6" of your theoretical wire inside your theoretical new box. Note that there are good reasons that the code no longer allows single conductors entering boxes through separate knockouts, the way it used to be done. Things to think about: What do your NM connectors' installation instructions or package say about multiple cables through one connector (strain relief)? Unless the manufacturer says it's OK, it's not. Also, how much induction heating will you get with a low wattage light bulb as your only load? In this theoretical scenario, you'd have to solder the new tap splices. I know of no approved solderless tap splice method for connections like this, but maybe someone else does. For electrical work, you'd use rosin core electrical solder, never acid core plumbing solder. You need at least a 40 watt iron or a 100 watt gun. You're supposed to insulate the tap splices with an equivalent to the wire insulation. For type R or RH wire, that would be sticky rubber tape followed by friction tape. You probably won't find either at the big box store, but a good local electrical jobber should carry them. For a temporary job, I might be tempted to just use regular pvc electrical tape, which matches the tap wires' insulation. Before taping, you'd want to wipe off the dirty insulation with a damp rag and let it dry. Again, all I've written here is theoretical and for entertainment purposes only, as I won't advocate code violations.