XPost: uk.tech.broadcast, uk.tech.digital-tv, uk.rec.audio   
   XPost: sci.electronics.repair   
   From: david.looser@btinternet.com   
      
   "Jerry"  wrote   
      
   > : Just ask any toddler who has tried to poke a screwdriver into   
   > an outlet.   
   >   
   > A toddler in the UK "Yeah! This game of sticking things in to   
   > these plastic shapes in the wall is fun, lets do it again!"   
   >   
   > A toddler in the USA (120v) "That tingles, not sure that I like   
   > that..."   
   >   
   > A toddler in the EU (240v) *flash, bang, wallop* "That hurt   
   > daddy, why is my finger throbbing, why has the TV (or what ever   
   > else is on the circuit) stopped working?"   
   >   
   UK mains sockets have shutters, have you not noticed?   
   > :   
   > : What's your problem with it? And how many of your American   
   > plugs are   
   > : hanging out of the socket with exposed pins and intermittent   
   > connections?   
   > :   
   >   
   > Indeed, the North America attitude to electrical hardware is a   
   > farce   
      
   Agreed.   
      
   > (only of the reasons why they are still plagued by high   
   > numbers of electrical fires), but then so is the UK's BS* 1363   
   > standard for plug/sockets, only in the UK -and those countries   
   > that have copied the UK- is the final circuit protection so   
   > designed that it is easy (for the end user) to defeat it either   
   > through ignorance or wilful tampering, thus a device requiring   
   > protection at 3 or 5 amps co so easily end up being actually   
   > protected at 13 amps - or 30 amps in the case of wilful   
   > tampering...   
   > --   
      
   Have you any data to suggest that deaths or injuries are any worse here than   
   in countries that don't use BS1363 outlets? I was amazed to find in a modern   
   house in Italy that I stayed in this summer that all the sockets   
   (unshuttered and each rated at 10A with fuseless plugs) on each floor were   
   supplied from a single 25A MCB.  How is that safer than the situation here?   
      
   David.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)