Daniel J. Stern wrote:
On Fri, 25 Nov 2005, Zak wrote:

Decent ES fittings have two fingers in the bottom, one contacting
center and the other contacting the base from below. After the first
quarter turn out, the base is isolated. The fitting is tall enough to
make touching the base very unlikely. These must have been standard
since at least 30 years.


Wow. Not in North America, where bayonet-base lamps are not used and the
threaded shell is for lamp retention *and* contact. 'Course, we have
half the mains voltage...

The shell on the bulb is the contact in the netherlands as well. The
threads in the fitting are made of plastic: the contact with the shell
is made from below, by a side contact down in the base.

Yes, you can poke your finger in the fitting and touch the contacts,
even both at the same time. But I cannot touch teh metal of the fitting
when the lamp is deep enough in the fitting to make contact, as the
fitting has a shroud from teh end of the threads of about 8 mm (5/16th in).


Thomas