Abstract

An electrical system for use with interconnected or ganged furniture includes electrical receptacles for each article of furniture and a plurality of electrical cables for connecting the receptacles. The receptacles and cables have specifically coded terminal groups and connector terminal groups that prevent interconnection of more than a specific allotted number of receptacles. An initial receptacle includes a substantially permanent power cord for plugging into a conventional wall socket. A last receptacle has only an input terminal group and a blank output. Intermediate receptacles are provided so that the total electrical system is limited to twelve sockets among the first, last and intermediate receptacles. In one embodiment, five terminal groups are provided. The receptacles are configured so that the input and output terminal groups for the receptacle are different. In this embodiment, only three electrical cable configurations are required, two having different mating terminal groups the mating ends and one having the same terminal groups at its ends.