At 01:19 PM 8/1/01 -0700, you wrote:
From what I
understand, every conductor must be capable of carrying a
current greater than the breaker that protects it. Otherwise, the cord
would
be the first thing thing to fail in a overcurrent
situation. This would
present a very significant fire danger.
In the context of building wiring, yes. Not in the context of appliance
wiring. 22GA zip cord, such as found on US lamps, isn't capable of
sustaining 20A@115V without heating -- and you can certainly plug a
You have to look
at it from the viewpoint of the load.
For a receptacle, its wiring back to the box must be capable of
handling the maximum load that can be plugged into it.
For a lamp, or anything else plugged into a receptacle,
the wiring must be capable of handling the device load.
In the case of a lamp, 100W, 150W tops.
You could get the right/wrong adapters and plug a table saw into
the lamp socket, which would probably fry the zip cord if the saw
could draw enough juice to start in the first place.