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new york city subway sub-station open or "live" front switchboard with faux marbleized slate panel

extraordinary and very rare early 20th century remarkably intact new york city subway sub-station single panel open front switchboard designed and fabricated by the metropolitan electric mfg. co., new york city, ny.

metropolitan was founded in 1892 and went on to manufacture electrical equipment in addition to switchboards well into the 20th century. period advertisements offer a glimpse at some of the buildings around new york city that were outfitted with electrical equipment.

i've been collecting artifacts from the new york city subway system (primarily signage) for many years now. however, as of recent, i've graduated to more three-dimensional objects including several utilitarian light fixtures fabricated by russell & stow.

from there, i managed to get my hands on an actual switchboard ammeter, and finally, a remarkably rare and very early single panel switchboard salvaged from a sub-station. unfortunately, i do not have any further information on the exact sub-station, but it came from the collection of a former subway engineer, who had an extensive collection of antiquated electric artifacts. he hs been slowly downsizing his collection as he advances in age, so some of the bigger, bulkier items are being "decommissioned" from his collection.

the remarkable wall-mount switchboard panel features a solid beveled edge insulator back plate with a well-executed polychromatic "faux" allover marbleized finish. the multitude of "knife" switches and interconnected flat strip busbars are comprised of solid copper.  the master knife switch with single black enameled turned wood handle is positioned at the very top. the original manufacturer's plaque is affixed directly to the slate back. each switch is equipped with an unusually-shaped black "lava" pressed and/or formed handle. numbers corresponding to the switches are deeply incised in the vertically positioned busbars. the flat head terminal copper screws are all intact.



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