Circular wall socket / outlet legal ?

[opps]

Bangers in summer?

Probably smuggled in from France. Rockets, in those days were only available a couple of weeks either side of fireworks night.

 

[SimonH2]

Belgium and France use a mix of square and round boxes with the same 60 mm fixing centres, Italy mostly favours rectangular American back boxes, the Swiss and the Danish each have their own, wholly incompatible national standards. Austria uses round 70 mm back boxes with 60 mm fixing centres or octagonal gangable 70 mm back boxes.

See, all those benefits from harmonisation of standards

 

[plugwash]

Not every harmonization effort succeeds, that doesn't mean harmonization in general is bad.

Harmonizing wire colors was somewhat painful, but I think it was the right thing to do in the long run. It makes sense for appliance cords to use the same colors everywhere so equipment can be easily sold across the EU and it makes no sense to have different wire colors for fixed and flexible wiring.

 

[winston1]

It makes sense for appliance cords to use the same colors everywhere so equipment can be easily sold across the EU and it makes no sense to have different wire colors for fixed and flexible wiring.

But they are not. The colours in Europe are different to the colors in the US as well as different spelling.

 

[Ragnar_AT]

All those boxes (except for the US ones in Italy) have one thing in common though: the 60 mm fixing distance, they all fit the same accessories. I'd call that reasonably standardised across Europe.