plug
A stopper (plural plug , also stopper ) is an object that is used to close a hole tightly. The word comes from the 18th century and is a noun to the Low and Middle German verb stop , which means something like to stop , since the 16th century also to stop in the run (actually to block by an obstacle ).
The closure is intended to prevent a gas or a liquid, for example water, from escaping or penetrating. In contrast to the lid, plugs are pressed into the hole and not placed over the hole.
Since plugs are supposed to hold tight, they are usually made of soft materials such as rubber or cork . This makes them easier to compress and press into the slightly smaller hole. But there are also stoppers made of glass or wood .
Application and areas of application
In Austria, the cork of a wine bottle is also called a stopper (or stubble), since until the end of the 17th century wooden stoppers were used instead of a cork. Although the Romans closed their wine vessels ( amphorae ) with corks that were sealed with pitch , this technique was then forgotten again with the fall of the Roman Empire . In the north they used flax or hemp waste , which was sealed with wax . In the 15th century , wine was no longer traded in barrels, which is how the Germans learned about the French closure technique using cork bark .
Further applications are the sealing of test tubes in chemistry with ground-joint stoppers , in medicine the closure of catheters and infusion tubes . In operative surgery, plugs are used to close the source of the thrombus during atrial fibrillation .
Different types of earplugs are used to insulate against sound, pressure surges or water ingress - for musicians and listeners, at work, during water sports or resting / sleeping.
Plugs are used in bathtubs , washbasins or sinks by sealing the drain tightly. Plugs for washing up or shower trays, which are designed as a continuous standpipe, integrate the function of an overflow .
Air mattresses , swimming rings and swimming aids as well as other inflatable articles mostly have plugs to close each air chamber. These consistently round plugs seal due to the force of the wedge effect when an acute-angled cone or at least a conical chamfer of a cylinder is driven into the opening, possibly with a slight rotation. The elasticity of at least one of the joining partners applies the counterforce to the contact pressure. Holding in the opening is done by static friction, circumferential grooves on the plug can improve the hold. Such plugs are typically secured against loss by a connection. Safety valves on small inflatables require not only pulling the stopper, but also pressing it crosswise. Screw valves and screw caps - typical for inflatable boats - however, seal without a stopper.
If the water pressure of the water held by the plug, like in the sink, pushes it shut, it can be designed as a short, blunt cone. Alternatively, there is a flap-like seal against a sieve when guided by a short pin.
Plugs that are inserted into an opening against the pressure to be maintained must be firmly pressed in if they are not otherwise held in position. The stoppers of thermos flasks with glass Dewar flasks are based on a tubular seal that can be inserted without force and that, when axially compressed by a screw, expands radially and thus rests against the inside of the opening. Modern vacuum flasks made of stainless steel have a small step in the neck as a sealing seat, against which a lip seal made of silicone rubber rests when the stopper is screwed into the thread above.
Vulgo "stoppers" for bottles for liquid nitrogen and similar cryogenic liquefied gas are loosely inserted into the neck from above. A cylindrical piece of closed- cell rigid foam insulates against the penetrating heat, the stubble is held in place by a cap made of aluminum sheet, which shields the bottle so that nothing solid or liquid can fall into the bottle.
There are three types of balloon closures for latex balloons that fit in the neck as stoppers:
- With a clamped-on tape and an integrated locking mechanism, which is activated by attaching the balloon cap to a gas-supplying cannula and closed by pulling it upwards. Such balloon closures also enable a balloon filling machine, as it is in the Technisches Museum Wien .
- The automated filling and release of a number of weather balloons with the inexpensive but explosive carrier gas hydrogen requires the manual pre-assembly of the balloon and probe on a central plug, which is held on a carousel and then handled purely by machine until it is released into the atmosphere.
- Larger lighting balloons made of latex are built typically with a plug which is integrated into the neck of the balloon. The stopper contains a gas-tight leadthrough for the electrical supply line, sometimes also a lockable gas hose. A light tube, which carries the electrical cable, protrudes through the stopper to about the center of the helium- filled balloon volume and carries a light source (formerly a light bulb, now an LED). The pulling force that binds the balloon downwards is initiated via a rope or the electrical cable itself at the lower end of the tube, which protrudes from the outside of the balloon as far as the other half extends inwards. The resulting moment erects the rod vertically and is intended to ensure that the light source is held approximately in the middle of the balloon, which is essential for the survival of the sensitive latex skin when the surface temperature of incandescent lamps is high.
As a metaphor
In animated films or cartoons, a plug can be pulled out of a lake or swimming pool to empty it like a bathtub.
If a globe or other large object is depicted as a fully inflated inflatable, it can lose its gas filling by simply pulling the stopper that ensures a tight seal and shrinks to an insignificant small size.
More uses of the word
- Street bollards (also Pömpel) are also known as pegs in some regions. Because of one of these, Stöpsel became the bad word of the year in Augsburg in 2001 .
- In addition, the term plug is also used for plugs as electrical components of all kinds.
- Plug resistance - multiple resistance that is varied by inserting conical brass plugs connecting two contacts
- In the sexual practice of anal intercourse , the butt plug describes a sex toy .
- Plug is a slang term for tampon (French word for plug).
- Plug is colloquially a non-judgmental and gender-neutral term for small children . The term is also used as a nickname or nickname (often for shorter people).
- Pulling the plug on a thing means "finishing something (mostly contrary)".
Comic characters
The plugs (plural); Rolf Caucasus cartoon character Stops has a niece and two nephews. The three together are basically called The Plugs . The first headings of the stories are therefore always either “Hops and Stops” or, if the three little ones are present, “Hops, Stops and the Plugs”.
Web links
- Appreciation of the ear plug (taz): http://www.taz.de/pt/2004/01/26/a0236.nf/text
