On 29 Jun, 09:54, (Geoffrey S. Mendelson) wrote:
wrote:

Also there are 2 very similar types of 2 pin plug which sometimes
causes confusion. The modern EU ones cant fit a UK socket, the pins
are too fat and too closely spaced. Forcing doesnt work. There are
also historic French plugs that look similar and do fit our sockets
with a bit of fiddling, but very rarely does one see one of those used
over here. They have 4mm pins. I dont think I've seen one in over 20
years.

The current EU standard is a 2 pin plug that looks like the one you have
not seen in 20 years.

This is only confusing things. There are other types as well, but the
ones that dont fit UK sockets are todays EU ones. The old ones I refer
to are not the old british 2 pin plugs from the 1920s, but the old
french ones that were still in use in many places in fr in the 80s.


The grounded version is the same with a third
pin of the same diameter, but slightly longer between them but below.

The two "fat" round pins, were only used in some parts of Europe and
does not fit in the U.K. outlets.

There's more than one type answering that description, so its hard to
know what you mean.

According to an answer to a previous post, modern U.K. outlets have
shutters which are opened by inserting the ground pin. This is to
prevent the two round pin plugs going in on their own, albeit with
a little force.

Most work that way. There are also some with a shutter operated by the
L&N pins. These are harder to defeat. Not sure but I think MK
introduced those.

The main purpose of the shutter is to stop toddlers poking things in.
They also discourage people from sticking bare wires in, followed by a
plug on top. This bad practice is a lot less common today as it doesnt
usually work with insulated pins, plus ever increasing material wealth
makes it a pretty much obsolete practice even in dodgy circles.


NT