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This is rather off topic, but does anyone understand how the cigarette lighter plug of all things managed to become more of an international standard than any o

This is rather off topic, but does anyone understand how the cigarette lighter plug of all things managed to become more of an international standard than any other electrical outlet (with perhaps USB as an evolving exception)? It's baffeling to me..

unwind 8y ago
Lazy attempt at providing some answers at least: https://www.lifewire.com/car-cigarette-lighter-12v-socket-534754 https://www.lifewire.com/car-cigarette-lighter-12v-socket-53.... Excerpt: Although they weren’t originally designed with this purpose in mind, car cigarette lighters provided an opportunity that was simply too good to pass up. Since the actual lighter portion was removable once the coil-and-reel version fell out of use, the receptacle itself provided easy access to power and ground. That allowed for the development of a power plug that could be inserted and removed with no need to permanently wire an accessory into the electrical system of a car. The ANSI/SAE J563 specification was developed to ensure compatibility between cigarette lighter receptacles and 12V power plugs made by different manufacturers.
hfdgiutdryg 8y ago
The simple answer is: smoking. Ubiquitous for quite some time and literally addicting. Now that everyone has Facebook on their phablets (arguably addicting) the market has met demand by adding USB ports.
mikestew 8y ago
Every car has had one since at least the 60s, and if you wanted easy access to 12VDC, that was your option. Step 2 is network effect, and now it's a "standard". There were the Hella plugs [0] in old Volkswagens (our '81 Vanagon has one), looked much like a lighter plug but smaller, and a better design. But they never seemed to have caught on except on BMW motorcycles. In fact, whenever I hear a reference to them, they're called "BMW plugs" because that's the only thing that uses them anymore. [0] http://i.ebayimg.com/images/i/291040452525-0-1/s-l1000.jpg http://i.ebayimg.com/images/i/291040452525-0-1/s-l1000.jpg

unwind 8y ago

Lazy attempt at providing some answers at least: https://www.lifewire.com/car-cigarette-lighter-12v-socket-534754 https://www.lifewire.com/car-cigarette-lighter-12v-socket-53.... Excerpt: Although they weren’t originally designed with this purpose in mind, car cigarette lighters provided an opportunity that was simply too good to pass up. Since the actual lighter portion was removable once the coil-and-reel version fell out of use, the receptacle itself provided easy access to power and ground. That allowed for the development of a power plug that could be inserted and removed with no need to permanently wire an accessory into the electrical system of a car. The ANSI/SAE J563 specification was developed to ensure compatibility between cigarette lighter receptacles and 12V power plugs made by different manufacturers.

hfdgiutdryg 8y ago

The simple answer is: smoking. Ubiquitous for quite some time and literally addicting. Now that everyone has Facebook on their phablets (arguably addicting) the market has met demand by adding USB ports.

mikestew 8y ago

Every car has had one since at least the 60s, and if you wanted easy access to 12VDC, that was your option. Step 2 is network effect, and now it's a "standard". There were the Hella plugs [0] in old Volkswagens (our '81 Vanagon has one), looked much like a lighter plug but smaller, and a better design. But they never seemed to have caught on except on BMW motorcycles. In fact, whenever I hear a reference to them, they're called "BMW plugs" because that's the only thing that uses them anymore. [0] http://i.ebayimg.com/images/i/291040452525-0-1/s-l1000.jpg http://i.ebayimg.com/images/i/291040452525-0-1/s-l1000.jpg