I was prompted by the
4-way receptacle thread to take these pictures.
This is a British adapter of 1950s vintage which was intended to allow up to four non-grounding 5-amp plugs to be connected to a single 15A receptacle:
The white piece between the prongs of the plug side is a pull-out which holds a small cartridge fuse.
Like that American 4-way receptacle, this adapter could only be utilized fully if the flat-bodied plugs were used rather than round styles:
[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 05-15-2003).]