General Electric polarized electrical adapter with ground tab
date: label: date made
content: ca 1970
name: label: maker
content: General Electric Company
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: General Electric polarized electrical adapter with ground tab. ca. 1970. An adapter to connect a 3-prong plug into a two-prong outlet. Molded on front: "GE / UL / 15A 125V", on back: "Caution / Connect Tab to / Grounded screw"; printed on side: "GE4260-1". Stamped on prongs: "UL". Bakelite housing with bakelite cover on male side. 1.75" x 1.375" x 1.5".
label: Description (Brief)
content: Electrical adapters for lamps and appliances came into use in the 1880s during the early adoption of electricity for home and commercial use. Aside from their physical attributes, adapters embody a large body of literature relating to the development and adoption of electrical standards, so we document these ubiquitous yet important devices in Electricity. This particular unit shows two features of interest. First, the unit has a grounding tab that connects to the center screw on an outlet plate. This design allowed for a more secure means of connection. Second, the unit is polarized, the prongs and slots are of different widths, allowing a similar cord to be inserted without regard to the electrical circuit. Electrical circuits are designed and wired such that one wire is “hot” (carrying the current in from the source) while the other wire is “neutral” (carrying the current away to ground). Which plug of a cord connected to which circuit wire was of little matter when most appliances could operate without regard to current flow and adapters featured prongs and slots of the same width. But as more devices required a specific electrical flow the need for “polarization” became more important. During the latter 20th century production and sale of unpolarized devices ceased in favor of polarized devices that forced users to plug the device in the correct way. This unit dates from the period of phase out of unpolarized adapters.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2021.0040.13
label: catalog number
content: 2021.0040.13
label: accession number
content: 2021.0040
objectType: label: Object Name
content: electrical adapter
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 3/4 in x 1 3/8 in x 1 1/2 in; 4.445 cm x 3.4925 cm x 3.81 cm