Slashdot Mirror
Connectors: A History of Their Technology?
dpbsmith asks: "It seems like a simple engineering problem--construct a device for easily and safely connecting several dozen wires at the same time--but the variety and creativity in their design over the years has been amazing, and, clearly there have been trends, fashions, and styles. In the fifties and sixties, virtually all connectors were roughly similar to the D-Sub design used for RS-232. A stiff, straight pin engaged a springy socket that contacted and bore against it on all sides. There were minor variations in shape and placement; the Amphenol Blue Ribbons (think Centronics), the connectors into which circuit boards engaged, but they were all variations on a theme. I was absolutely astounded the first time I saw a modular RJ-11 connector. Cheap, effective, and utterly unlike anything I'd ever seen before. Who invented these? Western Electric? Recently, we have the USB connector and the Firewire connector, obviously members of the same family (and a cheap-and-cheesy-seeming family it seems); on the other hand, my telephone and my digital camera have connectors that are very small and snap in with a positive lock that must be released with a squeeze, obviously yet another fundamentally different design. What do people know about the design, history, and engineering behind connectors over the years? Is it all hidden away, trade secrets of the connector companies, or is their a story that can be told?"
I was six when i first heard of the term "male" and "female" connectors. Even though I keep pestering my dad about
1) which one is male / female, and
2) why they name it something stupid like that
he just kept "umm... ahhh"-ing and never answered.
I was like 17 when it finally dawned on me why they named it that way. ha! then it all made sense.
moral of the story are:
a) who says electrical engineers / connector designers are not perverted?
b) to save yourself trouble, don't talk about male/femail connectors in front of little kids.
My life in the land of the rising sun.
It might be easier if we switched from 60Hz to something around 20kHz.
You want to overclock the power lines?
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
Table-ized A.I.
Cut both cables with scissors.
Strip the wires about an inch (with your teeth of course).
Twist the right ones together.
Electrical tape and solder optional.
M@
Krispy Cream is people
I had no idea that there was any need to connect anything to British Navels. I had an English girlfriend 20 years ago and don't remember anything about any _electrical_ connections anywhere. Seemed like a pretty standard bellybutton to me. It this part of some new broadband in the womb initiative?