Why are they called breadboards?

Question

Why are solderless protoboards called "breadboards"? I've used the term for decades but couldn't answer a student's question about the name.

An EE teacher of mine in high school always said it was because they cost a lot of "dough". (cough) — HikeOnPast, Nov 08 '12 at 22:16
Breadboards aren't limited to electronics prototyping. There are [mechanical/optical breadboards](http://imagebank.osa.org/getImage.xqy?img=dTcqLmxhcmdlLGJvZS0zLTEwLTI2MTEtZzAwMg) too. It's usually an aluminium plate with a grid of threaded holes. — Nick Alexeev, Nov 08 '12 at 23:19
+1 for a brilliant question that never once occurred to me to ask! — Adam Lawrence, Nov 09 '12 at 20:12
Thank you, although my student deserves the credit, not me. She will get a prize for stumping the teaching (and earning me reputation). — Ellen Spertus, Nov 09 '12 at 21:32
My one of teachers said, "Bread has pores so as this board"... :P — Swanand, May 24 '13 at 07:11

score 53 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 08 '12 at 23:59

This terminology goes waaaaay back to the days of vacuum tubes.
Generally, you would mount a number of tube-sockets on standoffs to a piece of wood (the actual "breadboard"), and do all the wiring with point-point wire and the components just hanging between the various devices.
If you needed additional connection points, you would use a solder-lug terminal strip.

^{_{Image credit: Random googling.}}

The story goes that an engineer had an idea for a vacuum tube device late one night. Looking around the house, the only base for his prototype that he found was indeed his wife's breadboard, from the breadbox.

Now, I'm not endorsing actually using a real breadboard. It's your marital strife if you do.

I've actually constructed a tube project using the breadboard technique. It works very well.

Also +1 for the marital strife disclaimer. – colincameron Nov 09 '12 at 13:42 — colincameron, Nov 09 '12 at 13:42

score 51 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 08 '12 at 22:08

51

Back in the day, circuits were often constructed by wire-wrapping components onto nails driven into flat pieces of wood that resembled (or were?) breadboards.

There's a nice video demo by the Make Magazine people here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HrG98HJ3Z6w

answered Nov 08 '12 at 22:08

Mark Harrison

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What did they do at night? – Sep 28 '17 at 19:42

score 22 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 08 '12 at 22:05

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In the early days of electonics, engineers would drive nails into breadboards (literally the boards that bread is cut on) and then solder on the components.

See wikipedia's page

answered Nov 08 '12 at 22:05

Nate

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Why are they called breadboards?

3 Answers3