Pooh Bear wrote:
Mike Rivers wrote:
In article writes:
As far as I know the XLR is just a series part number, it may have had an
original meaning, however we have no info here on it.
That seems to be as good an answer as any. There apparently was an XL
series of connector that was the same size and layout, but with a hard
insert. The XLR had a somewhat flexible rubber base for the insert,
and that's where the "R" came from (according to other folklore,
sometimes traceable to ITT Cannon).
I even have at least one old XL connector. Yup, hard plastic insert.
Cable gland is screwed on.
R for rubber sounds plausible.
Plausible, but far from certain. What is known is that XLR was a
Cannon (before ITT) part number. I've heard people say that LR
may have stood for "long reach" too, which is also plausible,
but unestablished. Usually, the only way you'd ever find out
what it "meant" would be to get the skinny from some old timer
in the Cannon engineering department.
Typically, part names/numbers come from two sources. One is
the engineering department where they are given names just
for project/ID purposes. Numbers often come from the numbering
of projects, such as IC development 709 etc. Names usually
make sense at some level IF one knows the thinking at the time.
For example it COULD have been "Experimental, Low Impedance,
Rubber Insert connector project" Which thence got shortened
to XLR. (X is a common letter used to mean experimental).
BUT as I said ONLY an old-timer at Cannon would know for sure.
The letters could just as easily have been something else.
Maybe even referring to internal names, departments etc.,
they had at Cannon.
The Second place part names come from is the marketing dept.
In such a case, the name would be choosen for "hype" Hence
the "X"...you know like the X-1 rocket ship etc.! And the "LR"
could be anything made up just so as to sound cool and not
create confusion with other parts (either in house or competitor).
As for the "true" story, only an engineer who was there
at the time could say for sure. I'm old enough to have seen
XLR as the cannon part number, but I never worked at Cannon
and have no inside info as to the reasons for the name.
Benj
(Who in those days preferred Amphenol connectors which were
considerably cheaper than Cannon and worked as well, IMHO)
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