Article View: alt.folklore.science
Article #1030Re: What is the purpose of the large and small prong on 2-pronged plugs
From: Grant Edwards
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 23:35
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 23:35
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1703 bytes
billc@col.hp.com (Bill Claussen) writes:
:
: I think the original reason that prongs went to different was
: because a long time ago, certain transformerless appliances (
: such as radios, record players, toasters, etc) had one side of
: the electrical line tide to the chassis. If you got the plug in
: the wrong direction, the chassis would have 110 VAC on it....
: provides for some nasty shocks (I speak from experience).
:
In the "good old days," guitar amps used to have three position power
switches (or a power switch and a polarity switch) that allowed you to
flip the hot and neutral lines around with a flick of a switch. That
way, if you didn't electrocute yourself the first time you touched a
mike stand, you could flip the switch and try again.
--
Grant Edwards |Yow! I brought my BOWLING
Rosemount Inc. |BALL - and some DRUGS!!
|
grante@aquarius.rosemount.com |
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Newsgroups: alt.folklore.science Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!news.gtech.com!noc.near.net!news.Brown.EDU!qt.cs.utexas.edu!yale.edu!spool.mu.edu!umn.edu!mmm.serc.3m.com!pwcs!medtron!rosevax!aquarius!grante From: grante@aquarius.rosemount.com (Grant Edwards) Subject: Re: What is the purpose of the large and small prong on 2-pronged plugs Message-ID: <1992Nov17.233535.22133@rosevax.rosemount.com> Sender: news@rosevax.rosemount.com (USENET News administrator) Nntp-Posting-Host: aquarius Reply-To: grante@aquarius.rosemount.com (Grant Edwards) Organization: Rosemount, Inc. References: <1992Nov16.225735.15265@col.hp.com> Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 23:35:35 GMT Lines: 21