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Here's something borrowed from our Non-US area. It goes to show that Bad ol' ingenuity knows no boundaries ...



From this thread

Oh my God.....

un-real

it's you all listed!

'Burn marks where the earth and active shorted, possibly when first installed.'

The built this sucker LIVE? Holy mackerel!

I'd be interested to know why it was working!

pwood:
ROTFL!

The Choice of a New Generation, eh?.
The scary thing about this whole saga, is that had that piece of Aluminium not shorted inside the Outlet and blown the fuse, this socket would probably be in use today!.
Another scary aspect of this socket is what would the associated isolator switch (which all our Outlets are required to have Down Under here) look like?, had one been added.

You're required to have switched receptacles in both Australia and New Zealand?

They're the accepted norm in Britain in residential installations, but not required.

Thumb tacks and paperclips make quite effective switches, by the way!


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 09-10-2003).]

Trumpy:

Do you mean that each outlet has a corresponding wall-switch, in addition to the circuit breaker?

Back in 1986 I took a trip to Australia. Noticed that most all outlets had an intergral switch built in. However, you could still insert or remove a plug with that switch in the
"on" position. Which made it seem rather pointless as a safety thing.

The integral switch is a common British/Commonwealth trait. Here's a U.K. version (remember our switches are up=off!):