I thought that, at least in terms of fixed accessories (I don't know about trailing sockets), BS1363 required that there had to be enough 'material' surrounding the socket's 'holes' so as to physically prevent a plug being plugged in incorrectly (either reversed L/N with no E, or E only), even if the shutters had been opened with some sort of tool?
You may be right. There was a design change in the typical molded sockets found on extension cords here to prevent a similar sort of thing. I have some older extension cords with which it's quite possible to insert a plug the wrong way round, with the ground pin left unconnected. The newer types have a molded extrusion on the opposite side from the ground receptacle to prevent that.
The only requirement I can find is 13.10: No part of the aperture intended for the reception of the line or neutral pin shall be less than 9,5 mm from the periphery of the engagement face of a socket-outlet except that when a shutter is operated by the simultaneous insertion of the current-carrying pins this dimension shall be increased to not less than 18 mm from the lower edge of the socket-outlet.
I have to say that I don't really see what that is trying to achieve. Given ~16mm between L/N and E pins, it certainly wouldn't be enough to prevent 'reverse insertion' (assuming shutters had somehow been opened).
Maybe - but I'm not sure that 9.5mm would be much use for that, either, would you?
Given the ~16mm separation, 18mm would be just about enough to prevent reverse insertion (with no earth) - so that's more logical. What the 9.5mm requirement is meant to achieve escapes me.
Of course - Not sure why I didn't see that before. And thinking about the 9.5mm requirement, possibly aimed at preventing the insertion of a small finger into the gap between plug and socket face and touching a live pin when a plug is partially withdrawn? That would be easier if there was less "in the way" around the pins. I'm assuming that this specification pre-dates the sleeved pin requirement for that to make sense.
That's what stillp suggested, but I'm not convinced that 9.5mm is enough for that. As you say, if that was the original reasoning, it's largely been overtaken by sleeved pins.
Well, it certainly wasn't for my little fingers circa 1970!
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