"The Great Debate" - Plug Top or just Plug?

[Dustydazzler]

plug top or just plug

 

[Risteard]

Any electrician or anyone else who refers to a plug as a plugtop is not very bright.

Calm down Winston.

 

[telectrix]

fuse board, ring main, bulb. plug top, conduit pipe, light switch socket, earth wire, choc block, trip switch..... wash my mouth out with carbollock soap.

 

[Lucien Nunes]

On another forum, we tried to unravel the history of the term 'plug top' and while it wasn't very conclusive, it confirmed what I've always believed.

100 years ago, when electrical installations were mainly for lighting, both portable appliances and socket-outlets were few and far between. Often, a socket would be installed specifically for one appliance that needed connecting, not as a general purpose point as we think of it today. A house might have one for the standard lamp, one for the iron, and then when an all-electric wireless was purchased, another point had to be put in for that. Appliances came with bare ended flex, so for every socket-outlet bought, a plug would be needed too.

Therefore, wholesalers often stocked and sold a matched pair of plug and socket as a single item, i.e. a complete pluggable means of connection, under the term 'plug' or 'switch plug'. Many catalogues of 1900-1930 list them as such; contractors, architects, engineers, reference books all commonly referred to the combination of plug and socket, and by extension the socket alone when the plug was removed, as 'plugs', 'wall plugs' etc. The term 'plug top' evolved to mean just the detachable part of the complete 'wall plug'. At the time, 'socket' seemed to be more commonly used to mean specifically the female contact, i.e. the opposite of 'pin'.

What needs more research is what the IEC had to do with it, and with the modern usage of 'plug' and 'socket'. As early as 1906, the IEC wanted to standardise electrical terminology amongst other things, and had done that in many languages before WW2.

 

[telectrix]

a dedicated socket for the iron>>>> luxury. my old mum was gobsmacked when dad bought her an iron that did not have to sit on the fireplate. it came with a bayonet plug annd dad bought a splitter so she could plug both iron and light bulb into the sitting room light. wireless (8 valves) came without a plug, so it was wires shoved into 15A round pin socket with the fire plug.

 

[Lucien Nunes]

OK yes, iron probably wasn't a good example as they were so often connected to lighting points. OTOH, in the time period I was thinking of, there was no TV.

 

[telectrix]

nostalgia. i remember first TV we had. it was a Philco. switched on at 5.45 for the news, came on at 5.55. bbc only originally. . it had a box on the back to get itv.

 

[buzzlightyear]

I was thinking of, there was no TV.

no just poking the fire .think i wish i had one .

 

[Dave OCD]

Paving slabs, so the oil from the motorbikes can slip down the joints.

Ah, a British bike enthusiast.

 

[Dave OCD]

Calm down Winston.

I'm surprised George only turned up at post 42 on this thread !

 

[Lucien Nunes]

it had a box on the back to get itv.

Band III converter. It seems madness now, making a TV that could only be tuned to one station. And you had to get the right model for your area to suit the transmitter it was going to receive. I suppose much like getting an appliance without a plugtop fitted, as you would have to fit one to match the plugs in your house.

 

[Dave OCD]

Ooh deliberate controversy !

 

[Silly Sausage]

it's a plug. a plug fits into a socket. if it were a plug top, a socket would be called a plug bottom. end of debate.

Where on earth did these poor deluded fools get the term 'plug top' for a plug?

 

[pirate]

I guess we say "put the plug in, please"...so that's the colloquial term

or "pull the plug"

(I'm talking electrics here, ok?)

When i was young, we had those bayonet splitters that let you run stuff from a pendant light...and, on the skirting boards, about 10" high, we had double sockets...one was 5amp, the other was 15amp...but of course you had adapters that let you plug a 5amp into a 15amp...nobody died.

Actually, I nearly did...but that was because I cut through the twin flex of my bedside lamp with a pair of scissors...I still have them today, and they have a perfect notch in them for stripping 2.5mm cable...I was thrown out of my bed, but being only 10 years old I survived without damage.albeit wringy friewhn sm some timex i not gfold vry gud 2 dey...
me gran was baby sitting, and she was not amused when all the lights went out cos she was standing to attention as the telly was closing down for the night and they were playing the National Anthem! Changed days...

 

[ipf]

Band III converter. It seems madness now, making a TV that could only be tuned to one station. And you had to get the right model for your area to suit the transmitter it was going to receive. I suppose much like getting an appliance without a plugtop fitted, as you would have to fit one to match the plugs in your house.

But there was only one station, Lucien. ITV only began broadcasting in the mid fifties, then BBC 2 mid sixties. My grandma only had BBC until about 1962. I had to go to her place after school and then rush home from her place to watch Supercar, waiting for me mum to get home from work.

Old Alice, down the road from me, used to plug her iron into a splitter plugged into the kitchen lampholder 'till she popped her clogs about 10 years ago.

 

[static zap]

Where on earth did these poor deluded fools get the term 'plug top' for a plug?

Was it "stores" Just being obstructive , so no one knew
how to bulk buy "plug tops" and had to go to Woolies instead.
(Don't forget a hank of bell wire for cheap installs)
--TV memories a big 9 inch set--