Hacker News Reader

Comment by arethuza | Hacker News Reader

On the point about building wiring codes, here in the UK we actually do have both central fuses/circuit-breakers and load specific fuses in the plug for each device.

After reading your comment it did make me wonder as I plugged our coffee machine this morning how the design substantial chunk of plastic and metal I was holding was influenced by the aftermath of WW2.

View on HN

The British plug is a marvel of good engineering. Other countries look on it with envy (except possibly Australia, which has a similar design of its own, IIRC).

Now of course it was "overengineered" by the standards of the time, to compensate for our ludicrous, dangerous, and still-legally-required "ring main" system, which as you say was due to aftermath-of-WW2 copper shortages. But the plug design is the part we got right.

Australian plugs are good, but have the live pins at the top (so for example a dropped coin will balance across them and short when the plug is pulled out), the plug doesn’t have its own fuse and the socket isn’t shuttered with no plug inserted.

A few years ago they mandated the inner-most 5mm or so of the active pins be insulated for that reason, so that by the time you have enough of the plug out to reach exposed conductor with your fingers it's disconnected. At least that's idea... and I can't tell you how much ebay junk is sold with the old "illegal" exposed active pins

To be fair that wasn’t in the original design for the UK plugs either, sleeves were introduced in 1984.

So Australian plugs are a bit like UK ones except upside down? :-)

Except the Australian plugs look like one of the masks from Scream or Scary Movie or something.

Evidence: Socket: http://i.imgur.com/zwRYC25.jpg Mask: http://i.imgur.com/b0RAZ9k.jpg

I dare you to try to plug an australian plug in the dark. It's just impossible ! Most other plug make it way easier .

Indeed lots of good sense included in the plug http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEfP1OKKz_Q

Ring final circuits aren't legally required, you can use exclusively radials if you prefer. The cost is of course thicker cables for the same power rating, and so in most domestic installs it is still more economical to use ring circuits.

What makes you think ring circuits are dangerous? Incompetent installation?

Wikipedia lists quite a few potential problems with ring circuits. I don't know how valid these complaints are. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_circuit#Criticism

> Other countries look on it with envy

We really, really don't. The most charitable of us manage to appreciate it as a quaint example of British discomfort, like those sinks with separate boiling/freezing water taps at opposite corners.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com