I "Jone's Socket" is a two-piece socket designed for series circuits ONLY. One piece is the base, which the lead wires are connected to. The Second piece is the piece in which the lamp screws into.
In order to change a lamp in a series-wired street light, the lineman would pull the Second piece out (by pulling down) and this would remove the Seond part of the socket with the lamp and the lineman would remove the lamp, install the new lamp, then stick the Second piece back into the First piece.
when the Second piece is removed from the First piece, there's a pair of tabs that close the circuit so that the other street lights remain on while the lamp is being changed. That is why Jones Sockets cannot be used on 120V standard (multiple/parallel) circuits. If you were to wire a jones socket up to a standard configuration, when you remove the Second piece from the First, you'd create a short-circuit.
In order to operate a Jone's socket on 120V multiple/parallel circuits, you'd need to modify the First piece so that the internal spring-loaded tabs don't close the circuit when the Second piece is removed.
The reason for the Jones socket was so that the rest of the lights would remain on during a lamp change. Also, since the series circuit presents dangerous current, a screw-base lamp would arc while it was being screwed in which would be bad so the jones socket was developed to allow the other lights to still work and so that the lamp could be changed without being connected to power.
IMO, it would have made more sense to just change the lamps during the daytime so they wouldn't have to worry about power being present but i guess that never registered to them lol.