The History of Electric Plugs

[MicroBalrog]

Question:

What were electric plugs shaped, and designed, like, in 1914?

In other terms, would it be possible for a time traveler from the modern time to use his equipment in, say, an American house in New York at that time, had he brought electric equipment back in time with him?

[CNYCacher]

It looks like for the time period of 1914, you have a small chance of needing a 2-pin plug, but the majority of appliances were designed to screw into standard light-bulb sockets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_power_plugs_and_sockets#History

Perhaps the time traveler would be interested in bringing a few of these along:

[grampster]

Bring along a pocket full of fuses as well.  Modern electric sucking devices would probably blow a lot of fuses do to the fact that most circuits were overloaded.  In fact, most homes with electricity might only have a couple or three circuits serving the entire home.

[Nick1911]

Also, it won't matter much for most things, but back then it was common in the US for mains to be 110vac, vs the more modern 125vac we now see.

[Tallpine]

Also, it won't matter much for most things, but back then it was common in the US for mains to be 110vac, vs the more modern 125vac we now see.

Back then - hell, that was the Sixties 

I still say 110/220 out of habit.

[CNYCacher]

Back then - hell, that was the Sixties 

I still say 110/220 out of habit.

220, 230, whatever it takes.

[Tallpine]

Joke, back from the days when wiring was simpler:


There was a middle aged guy who was getting bored with his marraige.

So he decided to trade his 40 year old wife in for two 20 year olds. 

But then he found out he wasn't wired for 2 20. 

 

[AJ Dual]

220, 230, whatever it takes.

A very underrated movie. 

[drewtam]

Apparently my grand-pa (or great grand-pa?) was a poor but hard working man who did all possible work himself. Unfortunately he didn't know much about electricity and decided to use telephone wire for electrifying the house to save on material costs. Why use that heavy expensive wire when this other stuff is 1/4 of the price? It does the same thing.

[never_retreat]

This guy is the plug.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Hubbell

[Tallpine]

Apparently my grand-pa (or great grand-pa?) was a poor but hard working man who did all possible work himself. Unfortunately he didn't know much about electricity and decided to use telephone wire for electrifying the house to save on material costs. Why use that heavy expensive wire when this other stuff is 1/4 of the price? It does the same thing.

OTOH, we ran this log mill for a while on contract...

The guy who put it together used this "very high quality aircraft wiring."

It was great except for putting this 1940s vintage wire, designed to be in a B-17, out in the rain and snow and sun.  We were always getting shocked and had several small fires start.   

[AJ Dual]

I think I'd rather have phone wire in my house than the old 1939 cloth insulated BX conduit.

You get a run of that open, and try to figure out how to wire a box or outlet with it, the ground going back to the conduit is easy enough, but when the cloth insulated pair comes out it's a matter of choosing "Brown cloth turning to dust" or "Brown cloth turning to dust", or "Black, but oops... it's scorched, not actually black/hot..."

Makes figuring out which is hot, which is neutral fun.

Add to that some was miswired in the first place. So putting the tester from each wire to the conduit does not always tell the story.

[GigaBuist]

In 1914 you might have still been running across DC electrical services too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Currents#Electric_power_transmission

Some cities continued to use DC well into the 20th century. For example, central Helsinki had a DC network until the late 1940s, and Stockholm lost its dwindling DC network as late as the 1970s. A mercury arc valve rectifier station could convert AC to DC where networks were still used. Parts of Boston, Massachusetts along Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue still used 110 volts DC in the 1960s, causing many destroyed small appliances (typically hair dryers and phonographs) used by Boston University students who ignored warnings about the electricity supply. New York City's electric utility company, Consolidated Edison, continued to supply direct current to customers who had adopted it early in the twentieth century, mainly for elevators. The New Yorker Hotel, constructed in 1929, had a large direct-current power plant and did not convert fully to alternating-current service until well into the 1960s.[21]

Hard to believe it held on in the US until the 60's, but there you have it.