My new apartment has no 3 prong plugs with ground

EJS, you can easily determine whether or not the screw that holds the wall plate over the outlet is grounded, by using a multimeter or a cheap neon bulb AC tester to see if 120 volts or so exists between that screw and one of the two slots in the receptacle (the smaller one if they are unequal in size).

Obviously, if you do that don't touch the metal tips at the end of the test leads while they are in contact with the outlet.

According to this Wikipedia article, knob and tube wiring was in common use in North America "from about 1880 to the 1930s."

Regards,
-- Al

If your house is not up to code, it doesn't matter...houses are "Grandfathered" without needing updates. I owned older houses for rentals, and that is what I was told by the township.

"If your house is not up to code, it doesn't matter...houses are "Grandfathered" without needing updates. I owned older houses for rentals, and that is what I was told by the township."

Stringreen is 100% correct. There is no rule or law that says an owner has to conform to code changes as they happen. They change frequently.

You can not replace an ungrounded two prong outlet with a 3 prong outlet without running a new 3 wire grounded cable. This would not meet electrical code and is a potential hazard .

My parents' house was built in 1948. It had no grounded outlets and used fuses. It stayed that way until 1996 when my mother died and the house was sold. We never had any problems.