I must have led a sheltered upbringing. Despite an interest in all things electrical and electronic from the age of about 9 and nine years in Radio & Television servicing after I left school, it wasn't until after I started a new job in late 1969 that I first encountered the term "chocolate block"!
Having been brought up in an age when everything electrical in many homes - light switches, etc. - used brown glazed porcelain for just about anything that required insulation - and plastic covers - even the 'new' 13A sockets - were universally brown, the origins were immediately obvious.
But the times, they were a-changing - porcelain was out and plastics in. The first plastic ones were, of course, brown (but you no longer snapped the required number off the strip like a 'proper' chocolate block) and even this was about to change. Grey ones, white one, translucent ones - does anybody make a brown one any more? Screwfix sell black ones but black ain't brown!
But, of couse, all of these strips are divided using the trusty craft knife, which loses the essential 'chocolate block' connection - would you use your knife to divide up a real chocolate block?
So, how many of you still use the term - and have you ever considered its origins?
And, would Adam's apprentices understand them?