Harvey Hubbell

Harvey Hubbell II (1857 to 1927) was an American inventor, entrepreneur and industrialist whose best known inventions are the United States electrical plug and the pull-chain light socket. Born in Connecticut, he left his job as manager of a manufacturing company in 1888 at the age of 31 and founded Hubbell Incorporated in Bridgeport, Connecticut, a company still in business and headquartered near the city. He began by making consumer products and, out of necessity, invented manufacturing equipment for his factory, including automatic tapping machines, progressive dies for blanking and stamping, and the thread rolling machine, still in use today. He received at least 45 patents, most of them for electric products. The pull-chain socket was patented in 1896 and the electrical power plug in 1904, and a three-bladed plug with a ground prong patented in 1916 was later adopted as a national standard in Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and, with a minor variation, China.