7 ms·

Why don't Schuko plugs have this orientational bias ?

by bartwe 14y ago

bmelton 14y ago
Schuko plugs expose some material on the sides to ground to their chassis. I personally think they're the better design, but if you look at this picture: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Schuko_plug_and_socket_annotated.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Schuko_pl... Number '2' is grooved out, and there is a receiving prong that sticks out to make contact to the groove-exposed metal, similar to how the contact chargers you're probably used to seeing on handheld phones (not cellular, but cell batteries are often similar) -- The important thing to note is that length-wise, 2 comes in contact to ground before either hot or neutral wires do (length-wise), so it's safer on paper than the traditional design.
- kalleboo 14y ago
  That solves a different problem though - the problem of touching the prongs by mistake when fumbling with a plug. I imagine there's no polarity in european plugs because the "use a third lead for grounding" solution was chosen right away instead of trying to patch things with forced polarity first (possibly with the prior knowledge of incidents from the U.S. - kind of like how PAL could avoid the issues inherent in NTSC) edit: looks like my assumptions may be wrong - the Schuko patent predates the grounded NEMA plug patent by 2 years. But who knows how ideas like this spread back then... This is the kind of history I'd love to read a book on.
  - excuse-me 14y ago
    The european plugs (shuko and UK) were intended for use with 220-240V - the US was always 110V so it was thought that the lower supply wasn't really dangerous enough to need all the extra protection
  - hollerith 14y ago
    >I imagine there's no polarity in european plugs because the "use a third lead for grounding" solution was chosen right away instead of trying to patch things with forced polarity first I remember when polarized plugs started to appear on appliances in the U.S. (probably in the 1970s) and by then the third lead was many years old.
ralfd 14y ago
There is also the Europlug. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europlug http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europlug

Why don't Schuko plugs have this orientational bias ?

by bartwe 14y ago

Why don't Schuko plugs have this orientational bias ?

Schuko plugs expose some material on the sides to ground to their chassis. I personally think they're the better design, but if you look at this picture: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Schuko_plug_and_socket_annotated.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Schuko_pl... Number '2' is grooved out, and there is a receiving prong that sticks out to make contact to the groove-exposed metal, similar to how the contact chargers you're probably used to seeing on handheld phones (not cellular, but cell batteries are often similar) -- The important thing to note is that length-wise, 2 comes in contact to ground before either hot or neutral wires do (length-wise), so it's safer on paper than the traditional design.

kalleboo 14y ago
That solves a different problem though - the problem of touching the prongs by mistake when fumbling with a plug. I imagine there's no polarity in european plugs because the "use a third lead for grounding" solution was chosen right away instead of trying to patch things with forced polarity first (possibly with the prior knowledge of incidents from the U.S. - kind of like how PAL could avoid the issues inherent in NTSC) edit: looks like my assumptions may be wrong - the Schuko patent predates the grounded NEMA plug patent by 2 years. But who knows how ideas like this spread back then... This is the kind of history I'd love to read a book on.
- excuse-me 14y ago
  The european plugs (shuko and UK) were intended for use with 220-240V - the US was always 110V so it was thought that the lower supply wasn't really dangerous enough to need all the extra protection
- hollerith 14y ago
  >I imagine there's no polarity in european plugs because the "use a third lead for grounding" solution was chosen right away instead of trying to patch things with forced polarity first I remember when polarized plugs started to appear on appliances in the U.S. (probably in the 1970s) and by then the third lead was many years old.

ralfd 14y ago

There is also the Europlug. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europlug http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europlug