# Origin of push buttons **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 8, 2005, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-push-buttons/298363 "2005-04-08T06:41:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dqa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dqa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dqa)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-push-buttons/298363/1 "2005-04-08T06:41:23Z")
In parts of the south, elevator buttons are “mashed” rather than “pushed”. Likewise with the buttons on phones, calculators, radios, cash registers, etc. This got me thinking - did the technology precede this regionalism, which later diverged from standard usage for whatever reason? Or were different terms coined simultaneously in different regions, when the technology was first introduced? So the first question that must be answered is: When did push buttons originate? ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-push-buttons/298363/2 "2005-04-08T16:49:04Z")
I have no answers but this sounds like an interesting question, worthy of a bump. _bump_ ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-push-buttons/298363/3 "2005-04-08T17:23:09Z")
> [@dqa](#): > > In parts of the south, elevator buttons are “mashed” rather than “pushed”. I think it’s a racial vernacularism in other parts of the country. Home in the Detroit area, I hear blacks use it all the time instead of “push” when referring to buttons and levers and other “small” pushing things. Strollers and broken down cars , though, are always pushed. ---
**Author:** ![Ezstrete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ea924/32.png) [@Ezstrete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ezstrete)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-push-buttons/298363/4 "2005-04-08T22:10:13Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > I think it’s a racial vernacularism in other parts of the country. Home in the Detroit area, I hear blacks use it all the time instead of “push” when referring to buttons and levers and other “small” pushing things. Strollers and broken down cars , though, are always pushed. If the question is when--------residential light and appliance conyrol switches had two push buttons[off and on] in the twenties. As to the regional usages-------push meant mash, and vice versa ,when it came to switches—and in some parts one would “throw” the switch. In any event the lights went on and off if the switch was mashed,thrown or pushed. And don’t forget “?toggled”. EZ ---
**Author:** ![Ezstrete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ea924/32.png) [@Ezstrete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ezstrete)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-push-buttons/298363/5 "2005-04-08T22:11:22Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > I think it’s a racial vernacularism in other parts of the country. Home in the Detroit area, I hear blacks use it all the time instead of “push” when referring to buttons and levers and other “small” pushing things. Strollers and broken down cars , though, are always pushed. If the question is when--------residential light and appliance control switches had two push buttons[off and on] in the twenties. As to the regional usages-------push meant mash, and vice versa ,when it came to switches—and in some parts one would “throw” the switch. In any event the lights went on and off if the switch was mashed,thrown or pushed. And don’t forget “toggled”. EZ ---
**Author:** ![dqa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dqa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dqa)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-push-buttons/298363/6 "2005-04-08T23:22:11Z")
Push buttons certainly seem to predate the 1920s. The first electric cash register was in [1906](http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blcash_register.htm), that same link indicates that the first mechanical cash register dates from 1883. My suspicion is that the technology of the push button may originate in musical instruments. When were the first trumpets with buttons/keys? Were these simply adaptations of piano keys, or did non-musical devices have push buttons prior to this? ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2005, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-push-buttons/298363/7 "2005-04-09T05:42:08Z")
Push buttons were invented in 1907 by Danish inventor Bertel Sanders. I assume that this mean the _electric_ push button, as various musical instruments and mechanical devices were (are) activated by buttons. However, I do remember that when Letterman’s network (NBC?) was taken over by General Electric, he pointed out that they claimed the push button as one of their inventions – repeatedly. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2005, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-push-buttons/298363/8 "2005-04-09T06:03:23Z")
When did electric elevators with push buttons appear? I know that for many decades, electric elevators were controlled by a large toggle switch controlled inside the car by an elevator operator, who would manually open the doors once the car reached a floor. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2005, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-push-buttons/298363/9 "2005-04-09T16:11:31Z")
> [@Ezstrete](#): > > As to the regional usages-------push meant mash, and vice versa ,when it came to switches—and in some parts one would “throw” the switch. I think we still “throw” switches, but usually I only think about throwing _big_ switches. But not pushbutton switchs, rather toggles, such as with large disconnects or circuit breakers. ---
**Author:** ![Ezstrete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ea924/32.png) [@Ezstrete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ezstrete)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2005, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-push-buttons/298363/10 "2005-04-09T21:40:31Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > I think we still “throw” switches, but usually I only think about throwing _big_ switches. But not pushbutton switchs, rather toggles, such as with large disconnects or circuit breakers. In spdt & dpdt toggles one usually refers to “throwing over”. The old 1920 era[and before] push buttons were really lever operated toggles. rather than the present day spring assisted toggles. The old single pole, copper, selector/throwover/motor start blades were purely manual----although some had arcing horns to prevent blade erosion. But that’s an other barrel of kilowatts. We could end up re-writing manuals. EZ ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2005, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-push-buttons/298363/11 "2005-04-09T23:56:39Z")
Additionally in the South, though not a “button” or “switch” word, one “cuts” the lights on or off. It’s so second nature to me that I didn’t know it was a regionalism until I was 23 and working with a guy who’d grown up in West Palm and it drove him nuts. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-push-buttons/298363/12 "2005-04-10T00:24:38Z")
> [@](#): > > I think it’s a racial vernacularism in other parts of the country. Home in the Detroit area, I hear blacks use it all the time instead of “push” when referring to buttons and levers and other “small” pushing things. Strollers and broken down cars , though, are always pushed. Actually, this might set us on the road toward discovering the dates of each term. It is hardly “racial” _per se_, but the fact that there was a huge migration of blacks to Northern cities following the mid 1920s would seem to indicate that the term originated in the South prior to the 1950s (by when the migration had stabilized). As to distinguishing mash from push, I mash potatoes with a hand tool while I push a car with my shoulders, so that usage is pretty clear. “Throwing a switch” probably originated in the railroad industry where one needed to actually heave on a long lever to switch tracks. Once the phrase “throw the switch” had entered the language, that fact that small toggle levers controlled electric circuits made the analogy easy, even if the size was disproportionate I don’t know whether “cutting” a circuit is realted to the old [“knife” switches](http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~srs/Antiques/misc/Knife_Switch.jpg) or is coincidental and I do not know which term came first (and I have to go fix dinner, so I can’t look it up right now). ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-push-buttons/298363/13 "2005-04-10T13:44:20Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Additionally in the South, though not a “button” or “switch” word, one “cuts” the lights on or off. I’ve never, ever, “cut the lights _on_.” That’s totally counterintuitive. I’ve also never “cut a light switch.” But I have “cut the lights.” It makes sense that one could open a circuit by cutting it. I think, though, that it would drive me nuts to constantly here “cut the lights off” instead of just “cut the lights.” But even then, I don’t think I’d say “cut the lights” all the time unless I was trying to communicate it in some type of work situation, i.e., it’s not something I’d say to my wife before she climbs into bed.