yes, it's as if they hadn't figured out hot to run it in the center yet, so it's woven in and out the arms let's say.
Greenacres, nice looking chandelier. But one has to inspect one of that vintage pretty close sometimes to determine if it is all original. There were chandeliers that burned candles, kerosene, natural gas, electricity and both natural gas and electricity. And the electrified ones were not produced until after 1882. But, it took many years before electricity was common even in the large cities and many of the old chandeliers were then converted.
Now I can tell from the picture that yours has been re-wired, and that’s the way they were wired, but that doesn’t mean it was converted. (If it was mine I would re-wire it with clear plastic coated "speaker" wire and you would never notice it was there). Anyway, the only time you will see one of them with the wiring “hidden” is when the “arms” of the chandelier are made out of tubing, aka, the old natural gas tubing. The factory kept the same design of the natural gas light only replaced the burner with a light socket and ran the wires through the gas line.
