Plugtop!

[charliegolf]

So basically you don't have a clue what you're talking about.

Maybe not, but everywhere that stocks and sells 'plugtops' seem to know what I'm talking about. And they all call them plugs.

 

[JohnW2]

The only possible theory I can come up with at the moment is that the very old wooden plugs of 100 years or so were shaped like a top, or a spinning top. They were round, and a had a knob as a handle, so very much like a spinning top or top.

That's an interesting theory, which I've never heard before - but it's far from impossible.

Kind Regards, John

 

[JohnW2]

So on that basis, do I take it you would describe these as an 'outlet connector' and not a socket?

No - as I said, if it's 'female' and 'static'/'fixed', that's precisely what I would intuitively call a 'socket'.

Further to your statement, would a male connector coupled with something non static such as this .... be called comething other than a plug?

Again, no. You seem to be scraping the barrel in attempts to unearth inconsistencies in my intuitive use of terminology - which is not too difficulties because, like most people, I'm pretty inconsistent in this respect! I would call that a "trailing socket", and I would call the 'trailing thing' I plugged into it "a plug", just as I would if the socket were static/fixed.

In fact, what you have illustrated is just one particular example of the countless 'in-line' connectors (with both components 'trailing') which we see in so many contexts ('electrics', auto-electrics, electronics, AV, IT etc. etc.), in which both male and female connectors are 'trailing' - and it seems that conventions/traditions as regards their terminology are pretty inconsistent.

Kind Regards, John

 

[SUNRAY]

No - as I said, if it's 'female' and 'static'/'fixed', that's precisely what I would intuitively call a 'socket'.
Again, no. You seem to be scraping the barrel in attempts to unearth inconsistencies in my intuitive use of terminology - which is not too difficulties because, like most people, I'm pretty inconsistent in this respect! I would call that a "trailing socket", and I would call the 'trailing thing' I plugged into it "a plug", just as I would if the socket were static/fixed.

In fact, what you have illustrated is just one particular example of the countless 'in-line' connectors (with both components 'trailing') which we see in so many contexts ('electrics', auto-electrics, electronics, AV, IT etc. etc.), in which both male and female connectors are 'trailing' - and it seems that conventions/traditions as regards their terminology are pretty inconsistent.

Kind Regards, John

No I'm most certainly not scraping the barrel, I'm merely pointing out the rather stupid and definitely illogical and at times confusing terms applied to some devices.

To my mind something with pins is a plug and something with 'oles is a socket, regardless of whether it's on the end of a cable or screwed to a wall/panel. I see absolutely no reason to call a wall mounted plug anything other than a plug (with a prefix or suffix if/as appropriate), the term inlet always makes me think of fluid or gas entering something like a tank/pump/fan or a river.

Even the term 'Socket' has changed from the original.

 

[securespark]

was it not established...in...anatomy...that a 'socket' was a 'female' receptacle into which something 'male' (often called a 'plug') was inserted?

This is getting a tad racy.......

 

[JohnW2]

No I'm most certainly not scraping the barrel, I'm merely pointing out the rather stupid and definitely illogical and at times confusing terms applied to some devices.

Fair enough - in which case, as I thought I implied, you are essentially preaching to the converted. Amidst the potential confusion, I attempt to use terminology which does not offend my sense of logic too much but which, at the same time, correctly conveys the information I'm trying to communicate - which is not always easy!

To my mind something with pins is a plug and something with 'oles is a socket, regardless of whether it's on the end of a cable or screwed to a wall/panel.

I think I stuck pretty rigidly to that idea for a good few years and, if one adopts that approach, then the concept of 'connector gender' then obviously becomes redundant - since plugs are then always male and sockets always female. However ...

I see absolutely no reason to call a wall mounted plug anything other than a plug ...

One problem arises from the verb "to plug in", which tends to implicitly suggest that it's always a 'plug' which is 'on the end of a cable' (regardless of gender). Would you really (in the appropriate situation) ask someone to "plug the socket into the plug", or something like that (in the case of the 'static' component being 'male')?

Kind Regards, John

 

[JohnW2]

This is getting a tad racy.......

You were slower than I had expected

Kind Regards, John

 

[securespark]

Sorry, Sir. It won't happen again....

 

[securespark]

I call them plug tops. That's what they were and are frequently called in the trade.

Why it's called a plug top, I don't know - but it's an old term.

The only possible theory I can come up with at the moment is that the very old wooden plugs of 100 years or so were shaped like a top, or a spinning top. They were round, and a had a knob as a handle, so very much like a spinning top or top.

Possibly a name that never went away.

https://www.flameport.com/electric_museum/plugs_BS372_round_pin/wooden_side_entry_plug.cs4

 

[SUNRAY]

One problem arises from the verb "to plug in", which tends to implicitly suggest that it's always a 'plug' which is 'on the end of a cable' (regardless of gender). Would you really (in the appropriate situation) ask someone to "plug the socket into the plug", or something like that (in the case of the 'static' component being 'male')?

Kind Regards, John

I feel no such suggestion as to which part is 'on the flex', in fact I can think of examples where a fixed plug is mated with a fixed socket without any flexible part.
Yes that is exactly the sort of thing what we say on a regular basis, without mention of the gender. For example 'plug the caravan in'.

 

[securespark]

Talking of plugtops, on a random search of old threads, I found this:

Random I know, but an X-ray of an MK plugtop

 

[stem]

When I was at engineering college in the early 1980's we were reprimanded by our tutor for not using the term 'plugtop' and also we had to say 'lamps' not bulbs, because "bulbs are something that belong in the garden".

At the end of the day, I don't suppose it matters really what terms are used, we're intelligent enough to know what's being referred to.

I still use the expression 'turn the light on' and I wasn't even around 100 years ago when the term actually meant something.

 

[Lumo]

In my family, most of the older people refer to sockets as plugs, eg they would say 'The hotel room had about a dozen plugs in it, but none by the table, so I couldn't charge my phone without sitting it on the floor'. They do know the term socket but will only use it when it is needed to differentiate it from an actual plug, eg when troubleshooting why something doesn't work.

Their childhood homes had straightforward wiring arrangements - electric lights in the ceiling of one or two rooms.

 

[ericmark]

The name for most electrical items is historic,

this is clearly a plug socket as the earth is a pin and line and neutral are sockets and the whole unit is a socket for the matting plug socket, so where the outlet and connector can both be called a plug or a socket there is a need to define which one we are talking about.

Whole idea of language it to communicate and we want to remove ambiguity as much as possible. Beware of the man eating haggis, is one good example of how we can use ambiguity for fun, however it is clear a haggis will not eat a man, so we know what it says.

And the plug top tells up what it is reasonable well, what is more of a problem is historically we call a new item after what it replaces, I still remember the bracket at the front of my push bike, (spigot) onto which the lamp fitted, and it was common in the days of oil lamps in houses to also mount them on a spigot so could be easy removed for cleaning and filling. From that we realise the lamp refers to whole item, what is a luminaire? that also seem to be whole unit? The wick, and mantel was part of the lamp, as was the bulbous unit called a bulb, but the fluorescent tube is not bulbous so could hardly also be called a bulb, just to add to it we have the light fitting.

Then we have a transformer, and although really a one to one isolation device does not transform the voltage we still called it an isolation transformer, then we started calling the collection of the wire wound bit plus the electronics a transformer which clearly it is, however the word electronic did separate the two.

Ballast not so easy, we have not added electronic to the word, so not as easy to explain why you can fit an LED unit to one type and not the other.

As to the ignition switch, clearly only with a petrol car, diesel cars don't have an ignition switch. So key switch is a better name, not that we even have them today.

Simple things, like green for safe and red for danger, so why colour the start button green and stop button red, is that not the wrong way around? I was told always mount an isolator so if some thing falls on it then it will switch off not on, good idea, and in the main isolators are down for off, but light switches and switches on sockets are the other way up. Down is on.

I have said many times is seems an electrician needs to have a degree in English, we pick up a regulation book, which is in the main used for reference, but so easy to be looking in the wrong section so we find the bit we are reading is not valid for what we are working on, as it is only for a TT system or only for installations designed after a set date.

When I first went to collage we were told common sense should prevail. However that seems to have gone, and we are acting more like law students.

So it's that thingy that goes into the wall, or the what you call it that the lamp hangs on. The ceiling rose does not look like a rose to me, and how did we get the name autotransformer? And hybrid to me was a vehicle equally good on road and off road, not thin road tyres, but neither think mountain bike tyres, and if it has two power sources it's called an ebike or moped. But hybrid seems to have a whole different meaning with 4 wheels, as to self charging I would think it had solar panels, but got it wrong again dad.

 

[ericmark]

Their childhood homes had straightforward wiring arrangements - electric lights in the ceiling of one or two rooms.

And they had to be low enough to reach to plug the iron into, always used the light BA22d connector for iron it keeps the cable out of the way.