would choose not to fit the cover, how does this "old" plug differ from "new" ones? Don't new ones have covers too? Aren't they equally capable of being left off?
Am I behind the times? Have we adopted the Schuko system while I wasn't looking? :-)
Found this while clearing up the garage. Nicely lethal if user decides not to fit the front cover before plugging it in!
As is any plug..I cant see what you are worried about.
I would have called it the back cover not the front cover.
I suppose it's because modern plugs are either in two halves, or the 'cover' forms the part you grip to insert it: either way, the OP's plug could very easily be plugged in to a socket with the terminals exposed, should a brain-cell-depleted user feel so inclined (eg if the cover gets broken/lost?) whereas that's not going to happen with a modern plug.
David
Even more modern ones with covers rely on the cover to keep the pins in place, don't they? Without it, pushing the plug into the wall would likely cause the pins to pop free of the housing, so the user would have to actively shove each of them into the wall.
That last bit ought to get em! ;-)
The pins were often loose in the original ones, if only to help manipulate thick wire in. What is _nice_ about that old plug is that the colours of the wires are shown against the terminals instead of today's barely visible L N E raised letters which are undoubtedly meaningless to most people.
Chris
snipped-for-privacy@proemail.co.uk gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
Better hope the colour-coding never changes, eh?
Should those people BE fannying about inside plugs?
Everyone knows the correct way to do this is use a screwdriver in the earth to push the safety shutters open, and then push the wires into the live and neutral. possibly with matchsticks to make sure they contact the socket conductors :-)
The same way urban legend at Marconi's was that a (pre decimal ) sixpence was the exact size to wedge the safety door contacts so you could work on a radar rig rack when powered up.
MK plug tops don't use the cover to hold the pins in.
My dad did that all the time....but it wasn't that that killed him...!
(we think it was 30 years of inhaling glass fibre chemicals in an enclosed space..)
I've seen a Tornado up on giant "axle stands" so that the radar could be turned on in spite of the interlock that required the undercarriage to be up to do so (with appropriate fences and warning signs stopping anyone wandering in front of it).
It's a bit more of a complete assembly that a darwin candidate user may plug in intentionally without the cover - or with an ill fitting cover or missing screw, compared with the modern version.
The pins are quite stiff to move in the rubberised material and with lead connections made and the wire grip in use, I think there would a reasonable chance (me not game to try tonight) of overcoming the mechnical resistance of the sprung socket conductors (and safety shutter mech) and having the naked thing energised unsafely, if the cover weren't in use.
Pedantarily (a word?) the removable bit covers part of the front face, where as with newer plugs it, as you say, it covers the back?
Now the whole thing's a plug top, where's the plug bottom? :-p
I recall they made some special clips to disable the cover interlocks on the JORN 20kW high power amp, so you could fiddle with it when it was on...
(in fact the only amp/transmitter that I remember never being operated with its covers off, was the 1MW VOA HF one. That was probably because the doors were lead lined to keep the x-ray emissions from the main valve contained!)
Those "special clips" will also be a standard part of the cover and will be their own stock item. Rather than faffing about poking screwdrivers where they shouldn't be, you simply get the correct matching half for the switch.
My toolbox used to have, I think three, different actuators for safety guards, on two paired rings. You could disable most guards that way, without breaking anything.
should be making more of them!
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