Nowadays we are governed by beaurocrats. No doubt "jobs for the lads" rules and this dictates that there must be something for the lads to do. A lot of these jobs are in Brussels, where our money is squandered over rules and regulations concerning just about everything. The trouble is that once pen is set to paper and a regulation is made it has to cover every eventuality. What was once a simple statement turns into vast tomes of regulations. Not least is legislation concerning electrical safety.
It must be a pain to the beaurocrats that there is such a proliferation of connector types in use across Europe. Maybe not. Because of the proliferation one can envisage not just one legislator but a whole office full. Plenty of scope for more money to be spent on our behalf.
Below I have shown a large number of mains connectors that were used from the earliest days to, dare I say it... the present day.
Probably none of the following would be acceptable for use nowadays!
It took the best part of half a century to standardize UK mains. There were lots and lots of different voltages, several frequencies of AC mains and of course the great divide.. some mains supplies were DC and some were AC.
It
was not common in the early days to have wall-mounted sockets
in homes and the usual method of connecting an electric iron or
a radio was to the ceiling socket via a multi-way adaptor, such
as two shown here. One incorporates an on/off switch operated
by the short cord.
Here
are a collection of two pin plugs for wall-mounted sockets
None are polarized so could be inserted either way round.
Ratings are two, five and ten amps.
A
couple of three pin multi-way adaptors, each designed to accommodate
four standards; small or medium two or three pin plugs.
Two
more adaptors of a diffent design, again accommodating four standards;
between them a total of no less than eight different standards.
This
pair pre-dates the universal use of bakelite, and are made of
wood.
This
connector is the type used by many radio and TV sets of the 40s
and 50s. It was designed to be used in such a way as to cause
the set to be unplugged before the back was removed. It was unlikely
though that it was ever returned the same way round as the two
pins were the same size. This meant that the set invariably would
end up with a live chassis. As the majority of valve radio receivers
and TV sets in use after the war were AC/DC, and had no transformers,
it was very dangerous to operate a set without its back. To make
matters worse it was not uncommon to find a single pole switch
in the mains circuit that guaranteed a live chassis even if one
took care to orientate the connector with neutral to chassis.
The explanation is that the switch often had to be in the neutral
lead to serve its purpose and when this wire was opened the chassis
became connected to mains live via the valve heaters. True, these
may limit the current, in the long term, to typically 150mA but
a lethal current is usually defined as only one tenth of this.
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things 