Internal wiring of USA v UK mains plug

Small dogs chew cords. Rabbits certainly do.

With the short electrical path involved, unless the dog/rabbit was laying on a concrete floor (I have seen this happen) in a moist/conductive condition, the jolt would likely only teach the lesson of what not to chew on.

What part of "if one remains within the specs for their use..." do you not understand?

Yes. Thick, flat blades. Leaning toward square even, but not quite so.

The main reason is that the designers of that chassis end (entry module) of that chassis connector system wanted large, round nosed pyramidal points on those strong, flat blades so they could act as good, repeatable "lead-ins" for the "otherwise only held in by the rubber squeeze" connector. Also, flat blades do maintain larger swept area of contact (and therefore safer current carrying capacity) longer than pins and sleeves after repeated disconnect reconnect cycles. That plug design was meant for molded on plug assemblies.

Jeez, just think of how huge some strain relieved, metallic, heavy duty device would be on the back of all our gear over the years.

That was one more benefit of the flat bladed design, was narrower overall plug size for any given ampacity and voltage compared to what would have been required for round pins.

jakdedert wrote in news:4qfii.10674$ snipped-for-privacy@bignews1.bellsouth.net:

Understood. I spent quite a bit of time putting GFI's in a house we bought and are renting out. It was built in the late 40's and expanded several times, some grounded outlets were installed but grounds were missing on several. Older parts of the house are on an aux breaker box.

Figuring out what fed what was fun.

--
bz

please pardon my infinite ignorance, the set-of-things-I-do-not-know is an
infinite set.

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Ever see "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation"?

240 is more lethal, though either is enough if they get a good chomp.

--
  Keith

Spurious Response wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

But when, in the hands of a lay person, does things stay within spec?

If it's bent so much that it's hard to plug in, just bend it back. No big deal.

John

Why don't houses come with schematics?

John

That's why I just replace the two-prongers as they wear out. New grounded circuits are home-runs from the breaker box, with new cable and a new breaker.

jak

Round pin systems did not consistently have good contact arrangement, leading to frequent bad connections between plug & socket, producing the same type of damage as occurs with unswitched sockets.

NT

Flat plugs came about because of Thomas Edison. He hated Tesla and refused to use anything but direct current in his electrical systems. His electrical service company, which supplied New York City, started out as DC and the large spring loaded plugs were needed.

The originaly were made of two leaf springs, probably brass.

Geoff.

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I'd say it depended on the quality of the fitting - given most plug/socket arrangements have round pins. Including the heavy duty BS4343 type.

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Am 02.07.07 19.20 schrieb Spurious Response:

pipe

pin,

US

with,

You're talking about this IEC

power connector, rated from 16A up to 250A @690VAC? ;-) But it also uses round pins, not flat ones.

Or should you mean that type, which is used for computer monitors and -power supplies? If so, then you surely noticed the lousy Ampère rating of mere 10A for it, which is just 2.3kW, rather than the 3.68kW which you have with a 16A connector system?

That's not required at all, but all those connector standards, Schuko, Euro, IEC 60309, IEC 60906-1 and the forementioned 3-contact socket/plug system used for computer monitors and SMSP have the removable parts case dive into the fixed mounted one, taking off mechanical stress from the pins and burden it onto the housing. And exactly this point is *not* true for the U.S. style connector system and this is one of the reasons, why I have quite a low opinion of it.

Well, it must have some reason that the international standard 230 V household plug system, specified under IEC 60906-1, uses round pins as well, not flat ones.

I don't know. Apparently those specs are either missing completely on those devices' power cords I came across so far, or they are written so tiny, that not a single one of their owners could read them either.

And, If I plug in that forementioned air compressors power cord and it comes out of the socket again just by the weight of the cable pulling on it, which spec applies for it then?

It just prooves my point that it is a poor system having all the weight/pull on a cable being put on the electric contacts rather than to the largest degree on the housing.

Am 02.07.07 21.35 schrieb John Larkin:

&

disagree.

Oh yes, it easily becomes a big deal as in case of an electric floor heater. Some moron in the past had moved it around so violently while being plugged in, that both contacts had been bent to at least 45° off direction befor it came out of the socket and when I tried to put them straight again, one of them broke off. I had quite a hard time to find a screw on replacement plug.

The number of complete dopes that ignore the "No User Serviceable Parts Inside" notice and open their consumer product up anyway is already staggering, and some of those still come with schematics.

I am sure this would cause an increase in house fires around the nation.

No, silly. He was talking about the STANDARD US 120V IEC cord used on nearly everything made these days, from dongles to 70" FPDs.

If I do not need 16 A power feeds as a result of not having any 16 A power requisites, then why would I need a 16 A cord and receptacle system?

That thing has ONLY been planned for adoption by BRAZIL!

You say "international standard", but the part of that that makes it "international" is the fact that an international organization published it. Other than that, it is quite obscure.

There are many reasons for choosing round or flat contacts. There are many connector systems... many different connector system designs.

One factor is temperature.

Here is a great place to get some power cord trivia:

That is just the 320 section.