Re: [89attendees] Mystery Power Outlet

Conversly, the removal friction is probably caused by the large contact area of the pins, which means you can draw the rated current without it getting warm. 

Try drawing 13A out of the UK square pin plug and see how warm it gets.

Way back when I was at college, the power feed for the disco lighting used to be an ad-hoc arrangement of 2 5A sockets through which we used to regularly draw 30A, with no sign of them getting hot at all.

Keith

> -----Original Message-----
> From: 89attendees [mailto:89attendees-bounces@ietf.org] On 
> Behalf Of Warren Kumari
> Sent: 03 March 2014 10:16
> To: Ole Jacobsen
> Cc: Ben Campbell; 89attendees@ietf.org
> Subject: Re: [89attendees] Mystery Power Outlet
> 
> On Mon, Mar 3, 2014 at 10:06 AM, Ole Jacobsen 
> <olejacobsen@me.com> wrote:
> >
> > Yes, this is generally described as the "old" British outlet. There 
> > are (at least) 3 version of this, see 
> > http://www.yikes.com/~ole/plugs/plugs-uk-r.jpg for a picture.
> >
> > The one you are talking about is on the LEFT in this picture and is 
> > still the official standard in India. The monster in the 
> middle is the 
> > standard one used in South Africa.
> 
> Yeah. The South African plugs had a tendency to get stuck in 
> the sockets. This left you with 2 options:
> 1: Grabbing the plug, pulling as hard as you could, while 
> wiggling it and muttering choice SA swearwords. This would 
> usually result in the back of the plug coming off, leaving 
> you looking at the pins and wires or
> 2: Jamming something between the plug and the socket and 
> trying to lever it out (also while muttering swearwords). I 
> discovered the hard way why you should use something 
> non-conductive for this purpose. 15A at 220V will happily 
> vaporize a knife blade, causing a monster big bang, and the 
> person performing this to soil himself...
> 
> W
> 
> 
> >
> > So, why would you find one in "modern" Britain? Well, usually these 
> > round-pin outlets are used for such thing as lights (lamps) 
> where the 
> > ciruit is not designed to carry the full 13 amps of a normal outlet.
> > These outlets are often switched and often hooked up to dimmer 
> > controls, in summary: designed to prevent you from plugging 
> in normal 
> > stuff.
> >
> > Having said that, I always carry an adapter for this type 
> of outlet, 
> > comes handy for stuff like CPAP machines etc, but do check that it 
> > isn't associated with a dimmer switch!
> >
> > Brits on this list will now chime in and tell you that I am 
> wrong and 
> > that these plugs/sockets are obsolete, but that really is not the 
> > case. The are installed in modern buildings in Britain 
> every day, but 
> > usually to prevent you from plugging your devices in --- airline 
> > lounges are prime examples of such torture.
> >
> > Ole
> >
> > Ole J. Jacobsen
> > Editor and Publisher
> > Home: +1 415-550-9427
> > Cell: +1 415-370-4628
> > Japan Docomo: +81 90 3337-9311
> > UK Orange: +44 7805 977889
> > E-mail: olejacobsen@me.com
> > URL: http://organdemo.info
> > Skype: organdemo
> >
> >
> > On Mon, 3 Mar 2014, Ben Campbell wrote:
> >
> >> My room has one power outlet that I don't recognize. It's 
> the only available outlet near the nightstand, where I 
> generally like to plug my phone.  I thought it was a UK style 
> outlet, but my adapter does not fit. On close inspection, it 
> appears to have 3 round holes. The rectangular pins in my 
> adapter won't fit.  It's otherwise the same layout.
> >>
> >> Any idea what this is?
> >>
> >> My euro adapters would fit, except it appears to be gated on the 
> >> ground pin. (Fortunately, none of the _normal_ UK plugs in my room 
> >> are gated, so I can use the euro adapters in them.) 
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> >>
> >
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