I think you mean black or white. With this old wiring, the neutral often appears to look stripped. However, you have a more serious problem in that the wires appear to be just sticking out of the wood. The present situation is a fire hazzard. If you want to mount some type of lights, the wood needs to be cut out enough to mount a metal pancake box to which to mount the fixtures. The metal pancake needs to be bonded (ground wire attached) which would tie into the green ground on the new fixture. Unless some of the wiring was updated at some point you probably have what is known as knob and tube wiring. With modern romex wiring, the black, white and ground are all in one unit encased in a jacket. In knob and tube wiring, the black and neutral are run as seperate wires through porcelain insulators screwed into rafters. This is not bad in and of itself except this type of wiring is so old that it often breaks and is very difficult to work with. Do you know if you have a fuse box or a breaker box? At any rate, the very least you should do is install the metal pancake boxes.

I'm going to not-quite-disagree.

My safety-oriented side says "fit a box." But my old-house side says "it worked this way for years, and was code compliant when originally installed." That setup probably worked fine. Shame on the previous owner for messing it up by removing the peripheral fixtures - and for fitting that hideous generic central fixture! What was he thinking?

There are countless old houses which still have the original K&T for the ceiling lights, and most of them have no boxes at all. They are almost all done as you see here. The wires are enclosed in loom (cambric tubing) for protection and brought right out through the ceiling. The fixture is mounted with screws right into the joist, or even into the lath for fixtures that don't weigh much. This was standard practice and code compliant in those days.

Of course it's important to note that very few homes used 100 watt and higher light bulbs in those days. I'm not so sure these installations are as safe when fitted with large incandescent lamps. And (here's my safety side again) you can't be sure that some future owner won't fit large bulbs. Unless, that is, you install fixtures that CAN'T accept large bulbs, such as those using candelabra or intermediate base lamps. ;-)

The other problem you'll run into if you dig into this is that once you start to fit boxes, you disturb the wiring. Now you may be looking at having to completely rewire to modern standards, for code reasons and/or practical ones (such as having old insulation flaking off the wires). This may be more than you want to get into, but it's possible that this is where you'll end up anyway.

I'd say that before doing anything else, you should first confirm that the wiring is still in reasonably good shape. With the power off, carefully flex the wires a bit. A little dryness in the rubber insulation under the cloth is all right, but if the rubber just flakes off, you have a major problem. If they seem OK, then you can probably install some low-wattage, low heat lighting there.

Now, again speaking as an old house fan, I would strongly argue against fitting modern pendant fixtures, if that's what your considering. What you want is something appropriate to the house's period. Try here. Maybe something like this (regrettably this uses A19 lamps which could be upsized too much, but it might give you some idea of what's possible).

BTW, I've seen a setup exactly like this in an old house dining room. The house belongs to some friends of ours. The lights fitted, which I think are original, are very small decorative fixtures. The heat produced has to be very low, which as I mentioned above is of some significance here.

Thanks for the suggestions, I am leaning on the side of using the wiring as it is. An electrician said that although its not code, one could use plastic caps to connect the fixture and wrap the bit of exposed wire in tons of electrical tape. Still sounds dicey though. I built the pendant lights myself and they will only accept a 25 or 45 watt decorative bulb, so the wattage should not be a problem. Either way we'll call in a pro to look at it, I'm sure he'll tell us a box is necessary.

And yes, that center fixture is bad - so are the other ones in the house that match it! :) Lucky for us the PO's were not very ambitious with remodeling, except for the missing sideboard! but thats another topic.

Oh, when I said "modern" fixture I didnt mean modern looking. I think these will be cute, and preserve the character.
{{!gwi}}

No, don't use "tons of electrical tape," use heatshrink tubing. I probably don't need to mention the dangers of heating it with a match! Use a heat gun, or maybe an extra hot hair dryer.

The fixture looks nice! I would call that a hanging fixture, not a pendant. To me, a pendant fixture is one with a downrod. Tiny pendants in cool colors with halogen incandescents seem to be fashionable these days, but they'd look pretty odd in an Arts & Crafts house.

Your fixture won't be UL approved since it's homemade. (But then some of the cheap Chinese fixtures aren't either, even when they claim to be.) I hope you used approved parts, including the wiring. What you want is type AWM ("Appliance Wiring Material"), rated 105 deg C. Ordinary zip cord won't do.

If you have trouble finding fixture parts locally, these guys may be able to help you.

Good luck. Come back and post another pic when you have the dining room lighting back to what it should be. ;-)