Polyglot electrical outlets at the European Broadcasters' Union
Today in my ongoing series of photos from my travels: the impressive array of plugs at each seat in the meeting rooms at the European Broadcasters' Union (the Eurovision Song Contest people) in Geneva, Switzerland. There's receptacles for British/South African, Continental, Swiss and US/Japanese plugs, at 220, 240 and 110 volts. I used to have to travel to the EBU semi-regularly for DRM standards-body meetings that were incredibly painful -- but at least I could always plug in my laptop. Link
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Actually, the South African outlet type differs from the British one, having large, round pins (like a larger version of the pre-1960s British outlet, sometimes still used for lighting in hotels). Or so the South African travel adaptors for sale in shops would have me believe.
ACB: Correct. Although small appliances all come with silly little euro-compatible 2-pin plugs.
South Africa used to use the same standard as the UK, but they diverged in the 50s.
UK-style sockets can still be found in some old buildings is ZA.
No Kiwi/Australian outlets? Awwwww
iirc, the OZ plugs should fit in the 3rd from left.
Also, looking forward to the rest of your photos from switzerland :)
Oh just to confirm before I lol, is the 5th unit from the left a Swiss plug?
I walked past the vacume cleaner in the hall and realised that I didn't see a swiss plug in that array!
The one nearest the camera is the UK socket, but oddly it has been installed upside down.
And yeah I looked for the Aussie/Kiwi plug too Alsen, but remembered it's the EBU, the clue being the E for European.
d'OH
MAURIK, the 3rd from left is a 2 pin socket whilst Oz/NZ plugs are 3 pins.
If only they had those in Swiss chalets: I spend 2 weeks looking for one when I was in Gstaad, though I eventually found one in Bern.
I look at that photo and think, which one is for my oscillation overthruster and which for my interocitor?
Would there be a lot of use for an Oz/Kiwi plug at the EBU? Perhaps not (actually I would have thought that the Antipodes would be 240v/square three pin being British colonies and all - then again the UK only adopted that in the 60s).
I'm also guessing that all the connectors with earth pins, such as the UK socket, would be installed 'upside down' as there's a probably an earth rail on the bottom of the power strips.
Stefanor: Britain introduced its current plugs (known as BS1363 ) in the early 1960s; as far as I know, they were never adopted by South Africa (which uses the 15 amp variant of Britain's earlier BS546 standard). They are used in Singapore and Hong Kong, and I've seen one at Dubai airport.
They're upside-down because a plug with a built-in transformer (wallwart) wouldn't fit in the space, otherwise.
SIMON GREENWOOD.
No mate you misunderstand me. All the plug sockets (electrical outlets) in the UK are like the 3 pin Squre pattern shown on the far left of the picture.
But the one there is installed the wrong way round.
The two horizontal holes are at the bottom whie the vertical central hole goes to the top.
I assure you this is the way it is done here.
In fact it's been done that way MILLIONS of times in the Uk.
really.
The UK socket is presumably upside down because the cable comes out the bottom of the plug (beneath the 2 horizontal holes)
If it was installed on that desk the correct way round the desk surface would get in the way of the cable!
Why are they all so different?
NEMA (North American) plugs are actually supposed to be installed with the ground pin at the top, to reduce the chances of a foreign object falling and creating a short between the live and neutral leads. (Although this is the official standard, it has only become a widespread practice over the past few years)
British plugs don't require this, due to the shutter built into the outlet, which prevents any power from flowing unless the plug is fully inserted. Fused plugs go a step further to prevent wiring faults from becoming dangerous.
The round-pin 15A British sockets are also still commonly found in use in theatrical lighting installations, as well in domestic use in South Africa.
(And nobody except for North America uses the horrible "Stage Pin Connector"......)
Error404: Yeah, I know the E's for European, but last time I checked the US and Japan aren't part of Europe, and there are sockets for them. :)
Not all NZ plugs are 3-pin. Some are only 2-pin (no ground), so it's possible they could fit on the third socket from the left...