WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en-GB

1
00:00:00.179 --> 00:00:03.909
I get a little bit patriotic sometimes. And
sometimes that's for comedy purposes, and

2
00:00:03.909 --> 00:00:04.930
sometimes it's genuine.

3
00:00:04.930 --> 00:00:05.730
And this is genuine.

4
00:00:05.730 --> 00:00:09.920
'Cos I really do believe that the British
plug is one of the greatest designs that has

5
00:00:09.920 --> 00:00:11.530
ever hit the world.

6
00:00:11.530 --> 00:00:14.509
For loads of reasons. I mean, there's the
safety features that most folks, at least

7
00:00:14.509 --> 00:00:15.429
in Britain, know.

8
00:00:15.429 --> 00:00:19.939
Which is that it's really difficult for a
kid to take, say, a screwdriver, and just

9
00:00:19.939 --> 00:00:21.369
poke it into one of the holes.

10
00:00:21.369 --> 00:00:25.170
'Cos up here is earth, ground for the Americans,
that's the safety one.

11
00:00:25.170 --> 00:00:29.769
These two here are live and neutral, where
the actual danger is. But they've got shutters

12
00:00:29.769 --> 00:00:34.670
over them. I cannot -- don't try this at home
-- I cannot poke a screwdriver in there right

13
00:00:34.670 --> 00:00:35.050
now.

14
00:00:35.050 --> 00:00:40.000
What I have to do is plug the earth pin -- which
is slightly longer -- the ground pin, here

15
00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:46.110
-- in first. And when that goes in, little
shutters come up, and let the other pins in.

16
00:00:46.110 --> 00:00:49.719
So I can show that. 'Cos this extension here
is really badly designed, which means I can

17
00:00:49.719 --> 00:00:53.930
put the plug in upside down. So if you have
a look at those shutters, when I put the earth

18
00:00:53.930 --> 00:00:55.309
pin in...

19
00:00:55.309 --> 00:00:59.469
...there we go. And there's now a contact
for the other two pins.

20
00:00:59.469 --> 00:01:04.460
So you need to have a really inventive baby
to be able to put one in there and another

21
00:01:04.460 --> 00:01:07.850
in there and then get a shock. So that's safer,
that's brilliant.

22
00:01:07.850 --> 00:01:09.520
What about if you leave the plug half way
out?

23
00:01:09.520 --> 00:01:14.540
'Cos American and European sockets, you leave
the plug half way out, you've got live electricity

24
00:01:14.540 --> 00:01:17.640
that you can kind of touch. If you can get
a finger in there.

25
00:01:17.640 --> 00:01:19.140
Well, not here.

26
00:01:19.140 --> 00:01:23.710
'Cos on the live and neutral pins on the bottom,
you can see insulation extends half way through

27
00:01:23.710 --> 00:01:28.530
them. If the plug is far enough in to make
a connection...

28
00:01:28.530 --> 00:01:30.180
Like that.

29
00:01:30.180 --> 00:01:33.240
...all you can touch is the insulation.

30
00:01:33.240 --> 00:01:35.570
Okay. So that's the obvious safety features.

31
00:01:35.570 --> 00:01:36.400
What about on the inside?

32
00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:43.680
'Cos you've got to remember, until 1992, the
British government did not require that electrical

33
00:01:43.680 --> 00:01:48.939
appliances had plugs on them. If you bought
a toaster or a washing machine, you would

34
00:01:48.939 --> 00:01:52.840
get, almost always, a bare wire at the end.

35
00:01:52.840 --> 00:01:55.560
And you'd be expected to wire the plug yourself.

36
00:01:55.560 --> 00:01:59.420
So I got taught how to wire a plug in school.
'Cos that was still a required skill back

37
00:01:59.420 --> 00:01:59.710
then.

38
00:01:59.710 --> 00:02:01.979
Here we go. If I open this up...

39
00:02:01.979 --> 00:02:07.390
First: there's a fuse. And that's an artifact
of when the standard was made. Post-WW2, there

40
00:02:07.390 --> 00:02:14.170
was a copper shortage, and it was a lot cheaper
to require a fuse in every plug and just build

41
00:02:14.170 --> 00:02:18.770
the circuit as one loop of cable going round
the whole house than it was to have loads

42
00:02:18.770 --> 00:02:22.050
of individual copper strands going out all
over the house and a fuse for each.

43
00:02:22.050 --> 00:02:27.930
So they just made the house one giant circuit,
put a fuse in each plug. That's now safer.

44
00:02:27.930 --> 00:02:29.470
Then you've got the three wires.

45
00:02:29.470 --> 00:02:34.099
Blue is neutral. B-L, L for left, blue goes
to the left.

46
00:02:34.099 --> 00:02:38.940
Brown is live. B-R, R goes to the right. Live
goes to the right.

47
00:02:38.940 --> 00:02:42.819
You can also remember that live is brown because
that's the colour your trousers will go if

48
00:02:42.819 --> 00:02:44.750
you accidentally hit yourself with it.

49
00:02:44.750 --> 00:02:48.660
And finally, there's this one. Green and yellow.
That's the earth, or the ground wire. Now

50
00:02:48.660 --> 00:02:52.700
in normal operation, that shouldn't be used,
but it's basically a return path if all else

51
00:02:52.700 --> 00:02:52.910
fails.

52
00:02:52.910 --> 00:02:57.200
If something goes electrically wrong in the
plug or in the appliance, that will ground

53
00:02:57.200 --> 00:03:00.409
it and all the electricity will safely go
away from people.

54
00:03:00.409 --> 00:03:05.040
'Cos if that disconnects, and there's a problem,
well, you could touch the metal bit of this

55
00:03:05.040 --> 00:03:10.250
toaster and the electricity could ground itself
through you, and through your heart.

56
00:03:10.250 --> 00:03:11.640
Which is bad.

57
00:03:11.640 --> 00:03:14.879
So instead, you have this wire here. And this
is the really clever bit, this is the bit

58
00:03:14.879 --> 00:03:15.900
that not many people know about.

59
00:03:15.900 --> 00:03:21.440
You see that slack in the wire just here?
In the event there's a tug on this cable,

60
00:03:21.440 --> 00:03:25.790
something goes wrong, and all these start
fraying and coming out, the live and the neutral,

61
00:03:25.790 --> 00:03:29.569
the ones where the danger is, they'll get
pulled out first.

62
00:03:29.569 --> 00:03:32.730
And then, the earth wire will come out next.

63
00:03:32.730 --> 00:03:37.099
So in the event of damage, of fraying, it's
most likely that the earth wire is going to

64
00:03:37.099 --> 00:03:39.409
be the safe one, and no-one's going to get
killed.

65
00:03:39.409 --> 00:03:43.819
So there you go: the British plug. Genuinely
one of the best bits of design I've ever come

66
00:03:43.819 --> 00:03:47.879
across, with one exception, which is that
if you just let it fall on the ground because

67
00:03:47.879 --> 00:03:50.090
you're just throwing something out of the
way...

68
00:03:50.090 --> 00:03:55.360
...it will almost certainly end up with the
points pointing upwards. Which means in the

69
00:03:55.360 --> 00:03:59.959
middle of the night, when you stand on it,
it is really going to hurt.

70
00:03:59.959 --> 00:04:04.409
You can also remember that because the live
one is brown, because that is the colour your

71
00:04:04.409 --> 00:04:08.409
trousers will go if you accidentally hit yourself
with it. Er, and the big yellow and...

72
00:04:08.409 --> 00:04:10.720
...you OK there?

73
00:04:10.720 --> 00:04:15.360
[LAUGHTER] "I didn't see that coming!"

74
00:04:15.360 --> 00:04:16.540
No-one ever does. Erm...

75
00:04:17.060 --> 00:04:19.060
[Translating this video? Add your name here if you'd like credit!]