Design, material and performance of plugs and sockets for electronic switching applications

From experience gained with plugs and sockets used in electro-mechanical telephone-switching apparatus and further experience of their use in association with electronic equipment, the necessity to improve their performance and reliability soon became apparent. Extensive research into the study of materials has led to the formation of a test specification which has the objective of determining plug and socket reliability for an anticipated usage of 30 years. This specification is given in an Appendix. Two designs satisfying this specification are outlined.