"Graeme" wrote in message
...
My poor old dad hadn't a clue how to wire a plug, which was quite fun in
the days when few if any items arrived with a plug fitted.

I once borrowed my grandpa's electric mower to cut our grass. It had a long
lead, plugged into a short lead that was hard-wired to the mower, using a
flat three-pins-in-line connector like this
http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/products/0531431

When the cable got tangled, I unplugged this inline connector and found that
it had been wired back-to-front - with the exposed pins on the live end that
was connected to the wall plug, rather then being attached to the mower
(with the socket part attached to the live cable).

I'm not sure whether it had been supplied that way or whether my grandpa had
wired it that way round, so I rewired it the correct way round and said
nothing, so as not to embarrass grandpa - with the plug and socket fastened
together, you wouldn't know that I'd modified it.

It was a bit hair-raising to realise how close I came to touching the
exposed pins by accident...