XPost: uk.tech.broadcast, uk.tech.digital-tv, uk.rec.audio   
   XPost: sci.electronics.repair   
   From: david.looser@btinternet.com   
      
   "Jerry"  wrote   
   >   
   > The great advantage of radial circuits is that idiots find it a   
   > little more difficult to bridge out the breaker in the panel,   
   > unlike the silly fuse fitted in BS1363 plugs (which for some   
   > silly reason is the same shape and diameter as many screws, bolts   
   > and any other round bar) -   
      
   Well the BS1362 fuse certainly isn't the same shape as any screw, since   
   screws taper to a point, nor is it the shape of any bolt, unless you cut the   
   head off the bolt. As for round bar, well it would have to be the same   
   diameter and length, how many people have bits of round bar just exactly the   
   right size hanging around the house? not many.   
      
   For the last 20 years I have PAT tested every mains electrical item   
   submitted to a charity auction that is held twice a year in the village   
   where I live. In that time I met a fair few horrors: flexes so damaged that   
   the bare live wire shows through, a standard lamp (with a brass fitting)   
   wired up with two-core bell-wire, flexes extended using a bit of choc-block   
   wrapped in insulating tape, broken plugs, mis-wired plugs, plugs with the   
   cord-grip either missing or incorrectly used etc. But I've only ever had one   
   example of a plug with anything other than a BS1362 fuse in it, and that had   
   a few turns of 5A fuse-wire wrapped round the prongs of the fuse-holder. So   
   I don't buy this idea that people are putting screws, bolts or bits of metal   
   rod into plugs in any significant numbers at all. Its *so* much easier to   
   nick a fuse from another appliance than to start looking for bits of metal   
   that will fit!   
      
   David.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)