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by realandreskytt 3032 days ago
They did bring about an universal socket, though. That’s quite a benefit
1 comments

There are, of course, two competing commonly-used sockets:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison_screw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayonet_mount

I'm from the UK, and I'm all too familiar with the two-types of bulbs.

But a couple of years ago I moved to Finland, and it seems here that the Edison-screw won. I've not seen a single bayonet mount since I've moved here. (And I've moved flat a few times. When you rent a flat they are typically unfurnished, and the Finns take this to an extreme, removing all their light-bulbs along with the furniture.)

Situation in Germany is pretty similar. I've never seen a bayonet mount in my life, I think. Also our flats don't come with lightbulbs either.

Every German who has moved flats a couple of times thus owns a few barebone lamp socket assemblies which are affectionately called "Russian chandeliers" (with apologies to Russians). When moving in these are usually the first things to go up until proper lamps are installed.

EDIT: I think I've seen bayonet mounts in some antique furniture at my grand parents' house as a child. But it certainly strikes me as a bit of an anachronism, much like American farmhouse style windows (the kind you slide up) compared to tilt turn windows (which are the norm in my country).

I've seen the edison/screw mounts in basically any residential setting here in Germany.

Some industrial applications use the bayonet mount, usually when the lamp itself doesn't use standard 230V AC to prevent mixups (IIRC mercury lamps use bayonets for this reason, you don't want it in normal sockets)