page_title: History of AC power plugs and sockets
section_title: British origins
hierarchical_section_title: History of AC power plugs and sockets / Development / Early history / British origins
caption_attribution_description: العربية: قابس ومقبسEnglish: GEC Plug and Socket as illustrated in the 1893 GEC Catalogue
context_page_description: Plugs and sockets for portable appliances started becoming available in the 1880s. A proliferation of types developed to address the issues of convenience and protection from electric shock. Today there are approximately 20 types in common use around the world, and many obsolete socket types are still found in older buildings.
context_section_description: As electricity became a common method of operating labour-saving appliances, a safe means of connection to the electric system other than using a light socket was needed. Thomas Tayler Smith of London, England received British patent 4162 in 1882 for an "Electric-Circuit Connection" to "enable the electric conductors conveying the current to one or more lamps, or along a flexible cord, to be rapidly and safely brought into connection with the line or main wires".  Smith subsequently received US patent 311,616 for the same device in 1885.  According to British Author John Mellanby there were British patents for plug and sockets granted to T.T. Smith in 1883 (No. 3883) and W. B. Sayers & G. Hookham in 1884, (No. 16655).  Mellanby also writes that there were two-pin designs by 1885, one of which appears in the (British) General Electric Company Ltd. catalogue of 1889.
  Gustav Binswanger, a German immigrant who founded the (British) General Electric Company Ltd, obtained a patent (GB189516898) in 1895 for a plug and socket using a concentric (co-axial) contact system.
caption: Early GEC 2 pin plug and socket as depicted in the 1893 GEC Catalogue
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2013:03:20 14:19:02", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6304", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "187", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "265"}