There are 50,000 ways I can compare the UK to Germany....various positives and negatives. But one of the odd differences? In the UK, when plugging something into an electrical socket....there are three plug holes. In Germany, when plugging something in....it's two plugs.
Why? The Brits will tell you the 3rd plug is for the ground-prong. Germans will tell you....science-speaking....it's not necessary.
What drives this odd difference?
I had this retired Brit handy-man who discussed this for five minutes (that's usually all the patience I have for a discussion like this). His point....a lot of Brit housing has crappy electrical cabling, and without the grounding stuff....you might trigger some issue to occur. As he noted this explanation....he also made the obvious comment on Germans....that they are obsessive about NOT doing work in a half-ass way or cutting corners.
I sat and pondered over this comment.
Yeah, if I were asked if Germans ever do something half-ass? I'd respond that it'd bring enormous shame to the German guy/gal to admit that.
So because of this....Brits always hype up the three-hole plug and how safe it makes things.
This discussion being cult-like? Well....it's a defensive explanation, because most Brits don't want to admit their home....built in 1937....hasn't really been fixed or improved sine the 1960s.
3 comments:
The German plugs are grounded. Look at the little metal prongs that stick out opposite the power holes, those are the ground wires.
What Wrench said. The system is exactly the same, just the positioning.
I'll just say in all these years in Germany, nothing that I owned shorted out and died.
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