"Jethro" wrote in message
...
I did a stupid thing - but I am curious.

Someone lent me his air compressor on which he had a 3-prong male
plug. He had clipped off the ground, leaving the other two. I
carelessly plugged the thing into a wall receptacle without paying any
attention. That's the stupid part.

I turned my back on the receptacle to flip the compressor on switch
on.
I heard a strange sound, turned around, and a little black smoke was
coming out of the receptacle where I had plugged the male plug in.
Needless to say, I immediately removed the plug. When I did, one
metal prong pulled out of the plug remaining in the receptacle. I
turned the circuit breaker off and removed the prong.

I think I must have plugged the thing in backwards, since the ground
was missing on the plug to prevent that. Dumb! Anyway, I now am
curious as to why the goof did not trip the 15A breaker. I think it
should have. Maybe the breaker is bad?


For the compressor it does not mater which way it is plugged in as far as
damage to the compressor goes. It is usually safer to plug it in the
correct way. If designed correctly the hot wire will go to the compressor's
on/off switch , then to the pressuer switch and motor and back to the
neutral wire. This makes it slightly safer but if the plug is reversed the
compressor will work just fine if it is in good operating condition. The
120 volt circuit is alternating current and as far as the electricity is
concerned it makes no differance, unlike DC that is found in the cars and
maybe a few other places.