While I'm at it, I also found a photo I know will get the attention of
@urumomo
The house was built in 1876 or thereabouts, and in the walls are buried just about every Canadian residential technology since then!
Everything from pipes used for steam heat, knob and tubes (not functional electrical), the grounding cable leading from the roof (and lightening rods I presume), cast iron, lead, galvanized, copper and plastic plumbing, dressed and non-dressed lumber, ceramic and porcelain, layers of paint and wall paper. Leaded glass and some window panes so thin I wondered how they hadn't shattered, single and double hung windows, counterweights and pulleys still in the frames.
A clawfoot 66" tub from 1903.
More crumbling plaster lath than I want to talk about. (at least it was laced with horse hair and not asbestos!)
30 foot long solid joists, probably milled just down the hill when Ottawa was a booming lumber town! The Empire had a ravenous appetite for wood, and Ottawa sits at the confluence of three rivers.
It occurred to me that a lot of the wood would have been from old growth forest, given the dimensions and time period.
So the house was ancient, even before it was completed! I digress.
There were cracks visible in the original cast iron sanitary pipes, and other short bits of galvanized and lead would have to go.
I get called to the not so deep, but very dark basement by the plumbers (we call it the dungeon), to have a look at this:
A bunch of affable lads, they wondered: "WTF"?
Judging by wire leads and cathodes, my guess was
batteries!
They were tucked up under the floor (yes, some of the subfloor planks are up to 15 inches wide), unnoticed by me since 2003, when I first bought the house.
Unfortunately, they crumpled and cracked when they were disturbed.
So glad I was there to take the photo!
I think they may have been refillable with the appropriate liquids, and possibly powered a few dim light bulbs, or an early telephone?
Mystery unsolved.
Cheers!