There's a story behind this picture, and I'd like to share it with you.

Back in the 70's, offices were changing. No longer did the typical desk have but a typwriter and - maybe - a pencil sharpener. Computers were coming; word processors and plug-in calculators were common. Even the simplest desk required several receptacles.

So, the 'power strip' came on the market. None of these were UL-listed, simply because UL refused to do so. It was felt that installing a power strip would lead to an NEC violation: that is, more receptacles than the code allowed on a circuit.

Within the offices of a certain testing lab, the staff faced the same problems as everyone else: not enough receptacles. Well, they certainly were not about to buy a non-listed product! Oh, no .... they had their maintenance guys make something. This is a pic of what they came up with:

[Linked Image from electrical-photos.com]