Just found out we British have the best Plugs :D.

originally posted by: MisterlondonThe fuse is there to prevent electrical fires and your appliance frying.

No, it's just a hangover from the old days when people were still working out which end of an electrical circuit is more pointy. The plug fuse does not always save an appliance, and it's been redundant ever since the invention of RCD and MCBs, which provide more than enough protection.

Also it allows you do isolate which item is faulty rather than the main house fuse blowing and having to source the item that has caused it.

In Australia we have breakers for each circuit in the house. It doesn't take much to work out which appliance is tripping the breaker on any given circuit. 90% of the time it's a high amperage appliance, and since it's rare to have more than one of them on a circuit, the fault is easy to track.

a reply to: TheKnightofDoom

You can thank the old NATIONAL GRID and Old ENERGY MINISTRY for that, pre Thatcher of course we had the best publicly owned energy supplier and standards in the world.

a reply to: LABTECH767

Quite right. And despite some of the capitalist crap we see spouted here and elsewhere, infrastructure works best when it is owned by the nation and not faceless, detached corporations and their shareholders.

As they often say in the Queen's English, .....Splendid.....

a reply to: Misterlondon

You are more than welcometogo throughthe many conspiracy forums on ats this is science and tech.

The fuse by that we mean the little cartridge thing in the plug should be rated to the cable as its there to protect the cable from overheating if theres an overload, its never been designed to save human life but to stop fires. The big one before the meter can generally work at about 1.5-2 times its rating for an hour or so before failing and then you have to wait for the electricity company to turn up as its their kit and you don't want to be pulling service fuses without the proper gear.

The modern 3 pin plug along with the socket makes it very hard for someone to electrocute themselves by accident.

It should be said that the reason we have a ring main(s) while most of the world have radial circuits is due to after the war there was a shortage of copper and thus the ring main provided maximum usage for each inch of wire, and also it means you need a smaller CU which is always helpful.

a reply to: Maxatoria

You are correct about the fuse but the design of our plug itself was a safety feature, our earth pin is longer than our live pin and neutral pin connection's and this allowed a sliding plastic mechanism that was intended to prevent children from sticking thing's into electricity socket's, of course it never really worked very well but there are probably thousand's of kid's alive today because it did work a lot of the time that would otherwise have been electrocuted.

You know what little boy's are like they are daring and will stick something in just to see what happen's which is yet another reason why parent's have to watch them, I remember being a small boy when a drunk driver lost control of there car and knocked a concrete street lamp over (we call them lamp posts), anyway the council did not send an electrician out because it was not reported for a few week's and we would take dare's peeing on the lamp post to see who had the courage to pee the closest and get the most spark's, my point being that kid's do stupid thing's.

Now as for the fuse you are correct but remember we have both main's fuse box (higher rated of course) and socket fuses so it was also a safety redundancy as well but of course later the invention of the RCD came along with it's cut out switch and these day's most new home's here and in other nation's do have a primary RCD in there main's fuse box.

Table Lamp's, 3 or 5 amp fuse.
TV's, 5 amp fuse.
Clothes Iron's. Electric fires (heaters), Kettle's etc 13 amp fuse.

So the fuse is really also to blow if the product rated start's to draw more than enough ampers to burn the fuse out so it is also a safety feature.

Now back to RCD's as you know many people used to get killed every year in there back garden's mowing there lawn's with there electric lawn mowers and had back then they had no safety cut out RCD (Residual Current Device) meaning that when they rode over the main's lead (We have all done it) if the grass was even a little wet they could and often did receive a fatal shock through the ground moisture, enough to stop there heart.

So these day's the more important feature is to be found in SOME electrical good's and in almost all new build houses electricity fuse box.

Now I am as the thread author is actually proud of our electricity standard's, they are far and ways' far higher than those in Europe were there plug's do not even have a safety fuse and I believe the same is the case for the State's though I can not be certain about that.

I can think of one humorous but tragic case of a man from Germany whom went on holiday to Spain, now he was a fan of a weird sexual fetish were they send low current electric shock's through there genital's and apparently they somehow get pleasure out of this.

The story goes that this guest was not heard from for a few day's after checking in and eventually his neighbours started to complain about the smell coming from his room so after being unable to contact him the hotel staff opened the door and found him still smiling lying on his bed with his unmentionable's wired to the main's through a home made contraption, it was not however a bizarre suicide but an unfortunate turn of event's though many would see it as innevitable.

In Spain you see there electricity grid is prone to surges and one of these must have overloaded his home made contraption, still it does add new meaning to sparking up a relationship.

Thought you may be interested in this, no plug's here just British inventor's and some other interesting British first's, some proven, some not.
www.historic-uk.com...

originally posted by: Peeple
a reply to: TheKnightofDoom

I'm german so to me a plug is this

So what's your personal favourite?

a reply to: Cobaltic1978

I thought they were wine bottle stoppers when I first clicked on the link. I even thought "Ooooo That one would look nice" lol.

a reply to: TheKnightofDoom

To be honest I did too, until I started scrooling down the page.

a reply to: Cobaltic1978

I would like to use one though....as a stoper of anything lol.

a reply to: TheKnightofDoom

It would be hilarious to bring it out as a wine bottle stopper during a business dinner party.