The breadboard

Anyone going into electronics will definitely need this : a breadboard. This is a historical name that stick till today because during the early days, they used to nail copper wires to a wooden board that used to cut ... well you would have guessed it... bread. Today, they are also called solderless breadboard or plugboard. ( source : wikipedia.com )

The top and bottom two horizontal rolls (connected together inside the breadboard) are for power supply ( + and - ) and the two five rolls in between are connected vertically inside the breadboard. The groove in the middle is designed so that an integrated circuit (chips) with long legs on both sides can be plugged in between the groove. These are called DIP ( Dual In-line Package ) chips.