WHAT IS TRADEslang?

No matter how long you've been in the electrical industry, someone will use a slang word, lingo or jargon that you will not have heard of before.  You may be a neophyte who is asking the "old timer" what a 1900 box is, or a 14 year veteran trying to identify an 8BO box.  Worse yet, the person who threw the slang word at you may have gotten it from a different person and may not have even known the word was slang.  Sometimes you can find an "old timer" to run the question by but many times you can't.

TRADEslang™  was created to assist any interested party identify what the real item is when confronted with a slang word or phrase.   For the sparkies (electricians) in the field, there are a number of dictionaries to describe the terms used in the installation process but none for the supply industry.  TRADEslang™ combines the slang word with a description, a picture and a part number of one manufacturer currently producing that item.   The tagline "To Amuse and Inform" sums-up in four words what this site is trying to do.

By its very nature, some slang phrases have a colorful origin.  In compiling this list over a 14 year period, these stories have been accumulated and added to the book.   If your company doesn't have a knowledgeable "old timer" to ask, the TRADEslang™ book is a resource to answer the questions of:   Why is it called a 1900 Box, BX, Romex, Greenfield, and so on?  

WHAT is in this website?

Compiling the information for the "old timer" portion is an ongoing research process that is intertwined with the project documenting How and Why major product lines came into being.  New people ask different questions that force us back to the "books" to find answers.  The books used in this research are antique Electrical Codes, Electrical Supply House Catalogs and Manufacturer Catalogs from the 1880's through the 1940's.  As new books are acquired, a variety of resources are discovered that in many cases are one-of-a-kind.    This is organized to further the research process.

There are 7 parts to this site:
1) Database Search of slang words and their "real" descriptions or item codes.
2) Bibliography of the research library and Catalog ARCHIVE project.
3) Some Historical images of electrical installations or products found in these books.
4) Documenting how various companies got their names.
5) Compiling the OLDTimer stories.
6) History of How & Why  Major Product Lines came into being and by whom.
7) Links to other sites that are relevant to people who liked this one. 

WHY is it being done?

For the employees in the Electrical Wholesaling industry (reps included), this is a resource to interpret what the customer is asking for and to put a picture and meaning to the product in question.  For Manufacturers, it allows them to get outside the parameters of their own catalogs and see things from the electricians and distributors perspective.  For the new electricians, it helps level the playing field with the OLDtimers.  And for the OLDtimers, it should answer questions they've always wondered about and prompt new ones for others to answer.  TradeSLANG addresses all these issues from the search tools to the tests to the OLDtimer section and to the images.

"That which our school courses leave almost entirely out, we thus find to be that which most nearly concerns the business of life.  All our industries would cease, were it not for that information which men begin to acquire as they best may after their education is said to be finished.  And were it not for this information, that has been from age to age accumulated and spread by unofficial means, these industries would never have existed." - Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)

What is the ARCHIVE?

The Archive Collection is an attempt to preserve unique catalogs with valuable information onto CD-ROM's for future historical projects. 

If You Want to Link to Our Site?

If you are interested in putting TRADEslang™ logo on your site and linking to us, please choose a logo from the following LOGO PAGE.