Timothy,

On Sun, 23 Apr 2006 10:26:52 -0400, Timothy Weber wrote:

> Howard Winter wrote:
> > Timothy,
> > 
> > It still faintly astounds me that US mains sockets are completely unprotected - they're such an obvious 
place 
> > for screwdrivers in little hands, that there must be a number of tragedies each year.  I realise that 110V 
is 
> > less dangerous than 240, but it can still be fatal.  In a country that does so much to protect its 
children 
> > (school busses, for example) this seems a curious omission.  Are shielded outlets even available as an 
option?
> 
> Generally, anyone with small kids buys lots of little plastic caps that 
> plug into the outlets.  But, they're necessarily hard to remove, so you 
> tend to put them where the kid's going to be most of the time and not 
> where you're constantly plugging things in and out (e.g., a workbench).

Right, but as I said to Herbert, these aren't fail-safe - you have to buy them and insert them in all empty 
sockets.  Murphy says that the one you forget is the one where the problem happens!  :-)
 
> How are they protected there?  I tried a quick Google but couldn't find 
> the right incantation.

Since it's built-in to the sockets, it's not easy to see the mechanism.  I'll see if I can find a useful 
picture...

OK, this: http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Images/Products/size_3/BG922.JPG doesn't show it terribly clearly, but 
you should be able to see the grey-coloured shutter which closes the lower two holes, and the ramp in the 
upper (Earth) hole.  When the (longer) Earth pin enters, it pushes the ramp down which opens the lower holes 
for the Live/Neutral pins.  Here's an example of a plug:  
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Images/Products/size_3/TLPT13.JPG

Cheers,


Howard Winter
St.Albans, England


-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist