OT - Chocolate blocks

Depends who I'm talking to, I use the term choc block, mostly to the seriously old ;-) When I'm talking to students I use the term terminal block.

Here on DIY it's depend on who I think might reply. I wonder what aussies call them or those running around naked in scotworld.

and the terminal blocks I get I try to use the ones that you can twist off to seperate them rathe rthan have to use a knife or angle grinder.

I checked rapid electronics were I get my terminal blocks, I did a search for chocolate blocks and it came back with very limited versions just 4 results for candemboss terminal blocks. Searching for terminal blocks gave me 974 choices .

Well yuo could call them yorkie blocks, but back in the day(s) there was only chocolate avaible in blocks from what I've been told.

Terry Casey explained on 22/11/2017 :

It wasn't a term I used, rather I called them connector strips, but...

There were porcelain Screwits(?) which are now banned in the UK, then there were various sized porcelain connectors with a brass insert. I have also seen and used hard brown or black connectors, that would need a saw to part them from a strip.

A Canadian working over here with me, brought a modern plastic version of the Screwit with him and insisted they were quite legal to use in Canada.

On Wed, 22 Nov 2017 15:06:38 GMT, Harry Bloomfield coalesced the vapors of human experience into a viable and meaningful comprehension...

Ceramic wire-nuts. I have seen them used inside devices and appliances in the UK, eg very old Honeywell motorised valves connecting the motor tails to the cable. Later versions used not-reusable crimps.

Back to chock-block, another name is barrier strips.

I still use them - and yes, I have considered the origins. I probably heard the term from my dad in the late 1950s.

To clarify - I still call them chocolate blocks!

I've always used choc block and most of the ones I find just need a smart twist to break the right number off where the hole is as they are mostly pretty flexible. Yes they come in all colours i am told. Just before I went completely blind a guy showed me yellow blue and brown ones, I said what about striped greenand yellow for Earth and he did not get the joke.

There are some very delux ones which contain a kind of strip inside that is clamped by the screw as well.

Brian

And in the USA. You'll find one behind virtually every light switch.

Are they? I divide the modern ones by twisting them with my hands.

Do they even speak English fluently?

I had someone refer to them as "lego brick connectors", some moronic Ebay buyer who bought an old PC PSU from me which I'd used such connectors on. He then went on to tell me it was lethally dangerous, at 12 volts! I told him to check behind some wall sockets and light switches to see them being used at 240V.

Who cares as long as it works?

Generally I just call them connectors but if the wife is around then chocolate blocks its the only way she takes an interest in what I am doing :-)

I call them chocolate blocks and I'm 'only' 47.

I learned the term from my dad, who was a fitter down the pits.

And AFAIK legal here in the UK

I've always assumed the name came from the dull brown appearance of the Bakelite ones, which looked like the chocolate that came in army field rations.