Plug socket

[rsgaz]

Plug top top

Yeah, and the bit with the fuse in is the plug top bottom, naturally!!

 

[EFLImpudence]

Maybe - although, as I always say, that is a bit different because the things "which used to be called transformers" still exist alongside the different things which now get called "transformers".

Yes, but that's only because the definition included the method of manufacture in addition to its function.

In a different field, we still see the word 'inoculation' being used in relation to vaccines, despite the fact that (as we can be thankful for ) it was only for a very brief period in the earliest days of vaccines that they were administered by injection into the eye!

Oooh, does it really mean that?

When I mentioned above, 13A plugs I was forgetting other amperages.
What I meant was - do the 'plug top' users call, for example, kettle plugs 'plug tops'?

 

[JohnW2]

Yes, but that's only because the definition included the method of manufacture in addition to its function.

I'm not sure that the dictionary definition ever did, did it (hence a lot of the current debate)? However, it certainly came to be universally understood to relate to an item which had a certain type of physical form, and even the function was assumed to be that associated with that type of product, functionality which is far from perfectly duplicated by current day 'alternatives'.

Oooh, does it really mean that?

Yep, with very simple derivation ... in-occular

What I meant was - do the 'plug top' users call, for example, kettle plugs 'plug tops'?

You'd have to ask them! I can't say I've heard that sort of language, but they presumably would talk of "the plug top connected to the kettle lead".

Kind Regards, John

 

[EFLImpudence]

Only one 'C'


...but did they really inject into the eye for purposes of immunisation?

 

[Robin0577]

This is totally different from "plug top", which is simply nonsensical, and I cannot imagine how it arose!

Kind Regards, John

I'm not saying it makes a lot of sense, especially nowadays, but my understanding of how it arose is that in the early part of the 20th century a socket and plug were usually sold together as a pair and advertised simply as a "plug". A plug on it's own was effectively considered a spare part at the time due to there being a very limited variety of things to plug in, and so had to be advertised as something else. I have some evidence of this in the form of an early electrical supplies catalogue which I can't find at the moment but which I shall up load as and when I can find it.

 

[Robin0577]

View media item 98936
...as you can see, there's no mention of the word socket at all.

 

[JohnW2]

Only one 'C'

True - I always make that mistake!

...but did they really inject into the eye for purposes of immunisation?

I doubt it, at least in humans - I was sort-of joking! I was taught that the word was original coined because the earliest experimental work on vaccines for some reason involved injection into the eyes of animals, but I somewhat doubt that was true, and the true derivation of the word (as used today) seems a little more complex:
"from Latin inoculāre, inoculāt- : in-, in; see in-2 + oculus, eye, bud"

Of course, the whole field is fraught with 'misnomers' based on what was only true centuries ago. We now use "vaccine" (and even "vaccination") in a very generic sense, even though it originally related specifically to administration of cowpox (Vaccinia) bugs to prevent smallpox (Variola). There was a period when purists used the word Variolation, rather than Vaccination, to refer to immunisation against smallpox, but I don't think that ever caught on.

Kind Regards, John

 

[JohnW2]

I'm not saying it makes a lot of sense, especially nowadays, but my understanding of how it arose is that in the early part of the 20th century a socket and plug were usually sold together as a pair and advertised simply as a "plug".

Yes, I've heard that suggestion before but, as you say, it does not make a lot of sense.

Whatever was true in the early 20th century, for most of that century plugs were generally called plugs by most people (I certainly did not hear of "plug tops" for several decades), and it was only towards the end of the century (or even later) that we started seeing "plug top" (maybe 'again'), without any apparent change in anything to do with the items to account for a change in terminology.

Kind Regards, John

 

[endecotp]

Yeah, and the bit with the fuse in is the plug top bottom, naturally!!

I think I'd call the back half of a dismantled plug the "back".

Which makes the bit with the fuse in the plug front bottom

 

[Echo the husky]

...as you can see, there's no mention of the word socket at all.

That's how I see it too, its written that way in some 1930s magazines I have here. strangely I also have the Crabtree version of the interlocking 3 pin 'Plug' pictured on that page here, though frustratingly I can't find one of the interlocking plug tops, I've got 2 here, but they didn't come from the same place as the socket. They can't have been popular as the sockets won't accept non interlocking plugs and the interlocking plugs tend to get jammed in the shutters of non interlocking sockets!

 

[john4703]

View media item 98936
...as you can see, there's no mention of the word socket at all.

I'm interested to see 15A and 25A plus listed but no 5A plugs.

 

[mfarrow]

A dashboard is no longer fitted to the road to stop debris hitting the driver.

A wing mirror is invariably never fitted on the wing.

A plumber may have never worked with lead.

A plumb line is often made with a laser.

Plumbers' Merchant; Electrical Wholesalers; Motor Factors. WTF?

Who last bought a (normal) house with a plaster ceiling rose?

 

[stem]

When you 'turn your TV on' what do you turn exactly? Can you 'turn a light on' using a toggle switch?

 

[Echo the husky]

I thought the socket was looking neglected so I gave it a bit of a clean.

Still needs a bit more work...

 

[deadshort]

Is that the MK Aspect range 1930 ? Note: the absence of usb sockets !

DS