On Sun, 23 Apr 2006, 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).
>
> How are they protected there?  I tried a quick Google but couldn't find the 
> right incantation.

There is a clever plastic tongue inside that covers both holes and can 
only be shifted if both prongs go in at the same time. Sometimes it is 
acuated by the body (laterally). Also most protected repceptacles are 
made such that the body is inside the plastic rim before any prongs 
touch inside. This removes the possibility of (tiny) fingers across the 
prongs feeling for the hole. I know this because when I was a kid they 
did not have that feature yet and I found out that it is very unpleasant 
to insert a plug blindly with a finger across the prongs to feel for the 
holes. This is also why 'euro' 2-prong plugs have part of the prongs 
covered in plastic.

Peter
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