XPost: uk.tech.broadcast, uk.tech.digital-tv, uk.rec.audio   
   XPost: sci.electronics.repair   
   From: max_demian@bigfoot.com   
      
   "David Looser"  wrote in message   
   news:9oqfn7Fd5pU1@mid.individual.net...   
   > "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!   
      
   How about 13A plug fuses for low wattage appliances such as radios and   
   lamps? Or wouldn't you regard that as a fault? (I wouldn't, as I regard the   
   purpose of a plug fuse to blow in the event of a dead short in the flex.)   
      
   --   
   Max Demian   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)