Plugtop!

[securespark]

For all those electricians who fitted plugtops, here's a video for you (spoiler alert......4 mentions of the word!):

https://youtube.com/shorts/4HvLTNy_uyw?feature=share

 

[securespark]

In my apprentice days, we used a lot of Trevor Linsley's books: he never called it anything other than a plug top.

 

[charliegolf]

It's a plug. The top is on it. See:

https://www.screwfix.com/p/13a-fused-tough-plug-black/68744

https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-13-amp-white-3-pin-plug/p/0060677

https://www.diy.com/departments/diall-13a-black-plug/753984_BQ.prd

Everyone agrees.

 

[JohnW2]

In my apprentice days, we used a lot of Trevor Linsley's books: he never called it anything other than a plug top.

Does anyone know how/why that (seemingly very strange) terminology initially came about?

Kind Regards, John

 

[EFLImpudence]

I have read explanations saying that the socket was at some time or in some places called a plug, therefore...
They didn't say the socket was called a plug bottom.

It doesn't make much sense to me but then lots of things don't.

 

[Chunky19]

I have said before on here and will show again for the benefit of others. Back in 1962 I was taught that the origin was from the 1940s when sockets were indeed called Plugs and the bit on the top was the Plugtop.

 

[AndyPRK]

Maybe that’s why the 30A fuse on my old bill fusebox had plugs written written against it

 

[SUNRAY]

It's a plug. The top is on it. See:


Everyone agrees.

Can you prove that?

 

[Chunky19]

Maybe that’s why the 30A fuse on my old bill fusebox had plugs written written against it

Now your getting it!

 

[bernardgreen]

I have read explanations saying that the socket was at some time or in some places called a plug,

I also recall that electrical sockets were referred to as "plug sockets" ( sockets for plugs ) as they were not sockets for use on nuts and bolts.

And maybe lazy speakers dropped the socket and just said "plug" when referring to a socket.

 

[SUNRAY]

Well if we want to stop the progress of language, let's stop calling the thing a plug goes into a socket.

 

[Johnmdc]

Everyone agrees

I don't!!

 

[charliegolf]

Can you prove that?

Yes.

 

[JohnW2]

I have read explanations saying that the socket was at some time or in some places called a plug, therefore...

I have said before on here and will show again for the benefit of others. Back in 1962 I was taught that the origin was from the 1940s when sockets were indeed called Plugs and the bit on the top was the Plugtop.

If that is true, does it not merely move the question 'back one generation' - to the question of how/why what we now call a socket ever came to be called a 'plug' ...

... long before the 1940s (indeed, long before 'electrical sockets' as we now know them existed) was it not established (e.g. in mechanical engineering, plumbing, even anatomy {as in 'eye sockets' and 'ball and socket joints'} etc.) that a 'socket' was a 'female' receptacle into which something 'male' (often called a 'plug') was inserted? If so, one wonders why (present-day) sockets would ever come to be called 'plugs'!

Kind Regards, John

 

[SUNRAY]

Yes.

Go on then... Prove that everyone agrees.

And while you're at it tell us the proper name for the device a plug or even a plug top mates with.