Electrical Devices

[HayZee518]

Which two electrical components haven't changed drastically in the past 90 years?

[mrcaptainbob]

Two devices....

Except for the ground pin, I would think it would be the plug and the outlet....still uses the basic two pin approach.

[HayZee518]

no change

I was thinking along the lines of a metallic bx connector and a two screw romex connector.
rigid conduit is another example. pipe but with a thinner wall that can be threaded. Meant for wires, not hydrostatic pressure.

[Nestor]

I dunno.

Do you think a metallic BX connector and a two screw Romex connector can be accurately described as ELECTRICAL components?

Every electrical system uses both mechanical and electrical components, just as every primarily mechanical system, like a car, or a lazer printer, will be primarily mechanical, but will also use electrical components.

Personally, I'd describe those two components as totally MECHANICAL components used in electrical wiring.

There is absolutely nothing electrical about a metallic BX connector or a two screw Romex connector, apart from the fact they are used in electrical wiring. They work entirely on the principles of mechanics, not on the electrical principles..

They are both about as "electrical" as an antishort, which, apart from the fact that it's used in electrical wiring, is a strictly mechanical device.

I think it was a trick question, and we demand a do over!

Just saying...

[HayZee518]

huh?

why must you be so damned critical? we started out on a question about a gfci, which shifted to a non contact voltage tester and wound up in a course on quantum physics and black holes. I can see now why Dan O in home appliances had to let you go.
Are you also in home repair on the Garden Web Site?

[Nestor]

I haven't posted on the Garden Web site in years.

They ran me out of there when they caught me stealing eggs out of their chicken coop.

[mrcaptainbob]

Ninety years....

Are you saying Romex has been around for ninety years, HayZee?? Did not know that.....thought k/t might have been more recent than that....

[HayZee518]

Wiring

Knob and tube was the cat's meow in the 1920's - you stretch two lengths of no 8 the length of an attic or basement, fasten them to porcelain knobs and splice into them wherever you needed a source of power. Now 1930's and 40's - someone got the bright idea to cover the copper with a thermoplastic, color it black and white and enclose it in a jute fiber jacket with brown paper fillers. Around 1950 they decided to include a smaller than #14 ga wire ground wire. Now that we have a cable we got to fasten it to a box, other than just shoving it through punched holes. Real early ceiling pans or boxes were made of cast iron with an internal cast iron clamp. They primarily used these boxes for knob and tube with the jute fiber [or loom] to fasten the wires to the box. APPLETON and RACO were one of the first to manufacture boxes with 7/8" knockouts. Appleton and Raco also made the first romex and bx cable connectors. O.Z. GEDNEY followed suit, then everybody got on the band wagon. A lot of the wiring AFTER knob and tube was BX cable, wires within a metallic armor. You still see type BX spliced into knob and tube wiring in old houses.

[Speedy Petey]

The Edison based socket.

[Nestor]

The mercury tilt switch.

Various kinds of mercury switches were patented in the decade from 1910 to 1920, and they all still work the same way; with a drop of mercury in a glass vial being used to make and break the electrical connection.

L.A.M. Phelan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia