24 Nov
2014
24 Nov
'14
9:59 a.m.
On Sun, Nov 23, 2014, at 16:20, tony duell wrote:
Mind you the old wiring regulations, at least in the
UK, make horrifying
reading. At
one time it was required to put a fuse in both the live and neutral wires
(and if the
latter failed the whole circuit was live).
In the US, it was once (before 1923) legal to have three-way switches
installed in a way that could invert live and neutral for the switched
sockets, and could result in the whole circuit being live.
I believe at one time in the UK, electricity for
lighting was more
expensive per kWh than that
supplied for 'power' (which mean heating, cooking, etc). As a result,
appliances below a
certain power had to be connected to the lighting circuit, which often
didn't have an earth wire.
Wikipedia says it was the other way around - lighting was cheaper,
creating a natural incentive to plug any device you could get away with
into the lighting circuit.