Olin,

> 2-pin yes, but not ungrounded.

But they may as well have been ungrounded right? The ground could not
have been connected to the chassis of the appliance? AFIK, the pins
were not polarised - although I have seen some plugs with one pin
slightly larger than the other - so the plug could very easily be
reversed and the 'hot' applied to the chassis?

>   These were the norm until the 1960s(?) when
> all new house outlets had to be 3-pin.  There are still many in houses
> that
> were built before this requirement.  My mother's house was built in
> the late
> 1950s or early 1960s and all original outlets were 2-pin but new ones
> added
> since then are 3-pin.

So according to what Jim says, your mother was out in the boonies (at
that time)?

> My office is in a building originally built in 1880

Very nice (I assume - if it's been maintained well)

> (before electrons were
> invented) and there are some very strange looking power outlets that
> I've
> never seen anywhere else in a few places.  Fortunately none of these
> seem to
> be live.

So you have a kerosene powered PC? :-)

Sean

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