I am helping out a friend and was going replace an old light fixture in his closet. Upon removeing the old fixture I noticed the wiring was wrapped in cloth shielding. The wiring within the cloth is insulated with rubber but both wires coating is black and both wires are copper. The cloth is old and slightly discolored. One is shielded in what I believe is white clothe the other is shielded in white and black stripe. I am assuming the the white and black stripe is the hot or black wire in todays fixtures. Hopefully someone can help me out and point me in the right direction. My cousin said it doesn't matter when I am installing a light fixture whether or not I connect the hot (black wire) on the fixture to the hot that is in the electrical box in the ceiling. I told him he is full of it. Is he correct or am I? I hope the vast knowledge available from the forum members will be able guide me in the right direction.

If there is no separate ground wire on the fixture it does not matter which wires are connected.

The lamp does not care which way the base is wired, but the accepted wiring method is to connect the "hot" wire to the center pin of the lamp base, and the "neutral" wire to the threaded shell for some safety.

I can see the logic of your guess on color coding (white=neutral, white/black=hot) but there are no guarantees that is how the previous electrician wired the house.

If you have a non-contact voltage detector, you might be able to tell which is "hot' when you hold the probe next to each wire when the switch is on. If they both test 'hot' try removing the lamp and trying again.

A regular voltmeter with leads won't do much good, since there is no real ground to measure each against.

On a light fixture it does not matter.

Tom W

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Wow thanks everyone!!!! I was confused when removing the old porcelain light fixture because I couldn't identify the white and black wire. So I can move forward knowing that the fixture does not know the difference. According to what the answers are so far when installing the light fixture it does not matter which wire is connected to which. Obviously this house does not have a ground wire and neither do the fixtures.

Read again the post by Jim H.

It's good to have the threaded part of the socket - the one with which a person is more likely to come into contact while installing or removing a bulb - connected to the neutral.

I fully intend on wiring the hot and neutaral wires properly. I was just wondering what are the dangers of not being able to identify hot and neutral wires that are coming into the light fixture box. I guess if someone could shed some light that would also be a big help. At this point I feel confidentin the fact that wire with the black and whit cloth shielding is hot and the one with the white shielding is neutral

I agree completely with Jim H and Eskimo. If you're uncertain about which is hot and which is neutral, get the small two pronged tester. If you hold one prong in your palm, and touch the other to a hot wire, it will glow faintly (no shock from that, it's recommended usage); touch one to the hot and one to neutral it will burn brightly.

The light will still work but it's worthwhile to do it right.

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