History
The 1934 edition of the standard, titled "Two-Pole and Earthing-Pin Plugs and Socket Outlets" superseded BS 372 "Side-Entry Wall Plugs and Sockets for Domestic Purposes" Part II, which was published in 1930. BS 546:1934 clause 2 specifies interchangeability with BS 372 Part II which includes the same four plug and socket sizes. BS 372 Part II had itself superseded BS 317 "Hand-Shield and Side Entry Pattern Three-Pin Wall Plugs and Sockets (Two Pin and Earth Type) published in 1928. BS 372 Part II states that there are only minor alterations from BS 317. (BS 372 Part I was a standard for two pin non-earthed plugs which were never specified by BS 546.)
Although still permitted by the UK wiring regulations, these sockets are no longer used for general appliances. Some of the varieties remain in use in other countries and in specialist applications such as stage lighting.
Prior to the adoption of (what was to become) BS 546 as a standard, there were around two dozen different types of power socket used in different cities throughout Britain. The development of the National Grid in the late 1920s provided the impetus for greater standardisation of voltages, frequencies and plug types.
The sockets were not shuttered when BS 546 was in common use domestically in the UK. The current revision of the standard does specify shutters similar to those of BS 1363. Current UK wiring regulations require socket outlets installed in homes to be shuttered.
Read more about this topic: BS 546
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of all Magazines shows plainly that those which have attained celebrity were indebted for it to articles similar in natureto Berenice—although, I grant you, far superior in style and execution. I say similar in nature. You ask me in what does this nature consist? In the ludicrous heightened into the grotesque: the fearful coloured into the horrible: the witty exaggerated into the burlesque: the singular wrought out into the strange and mystical.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“The view of Jerusalem is the history of the world; it is more, it is the history of earth and of heaven.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)
“It is true that this man was nothing but an elemental force in motion, directed and rendered more effective by extreme cunning and by a relentless tactical clairvoyance .... Hitler was history in its purest form.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)