有时候我比较爱国 有时候这纯粹是为了搞笑
I get a little bit patriotic sometimes. And sometimes that’s for comedy purposes, and
不过有时候是发自内心的
sometimes it’s genuine.
这是真的
And this is genuine.
因为我觉得英国插头是世界上
‘Cos I really do believe that the British plug is one of the greatest designs that has
最棒的发明之一
ever hit the world.
因为一些原因 大多数英国人是知道
For loads of reasons. I mean, there’s the safety features that most folks, at least
安全保护措施
in Britain, know.
对于小孩子来说 把螺丝刀插到这个孔里
Which is that it’s really difficult for a kid to take, say, a screwdriver, and just
是有点难度的
poke it into one of the holes.
因为这个是接地孔 这个孔是比较安全的
‘Cos up here is earth, ground for the Americans, that’s the safety one.
这两个是正极和负极 这两个孔可危险了 但是这两个孔会装有百叶窗
These two here are live and neutral, where the actual danger is. But they’ve got shutters
我不能–你可不要在家里尝试哦–我现在留做不到把螺丝刀放到
over them. I cannot — don’t try this at home — I cannot poke a screwdriver in there right
里面
now.
我要先把接地插头 比较长的这根 先插进去
What I have to do is plug the earth pin — which is slightly longer — the ground pin, here
当接地插头插进去了后 百叶窗就打开了 然后后面的两个插头就可以插进去了
— in first. And when that goes in, little shutters come up, and let the other pins in.
我可以展示一下。因为这个伸展设计的实在是太糟糕了，也就意味着
So I can show that. ‘Cos this extension here is really badly designed, which means I can
我可以把它倒着插进去。所以如果你看一看这些百叶窗的话，当我把
put the plug in upside down. So if you have a look at those shutters, when I put the earth
接地插头插进去的时候…
pin in…
好了。现在在另外两个插孔的那里就都有电流了。
…there we go. And there’s now a contact for the other two pins.
你需要有一个非常有发明才能的孩子，把一个放在这里，另一个
So you need to have a really inventive baby to be able to put one in there and another
放在这里，然后被电击。这样就安全多了，这太棒了。
in there and then get a shock. So that’s safer, that’s brilliant.
那么如果你把这个插头露出来一半呢？
What about if you leave the plug half way out?
因为如果你将美国和欧洲的插座留一半在外面的话，你就会得到充沛的电流，
‘Cos American and European sockets, you leave the plug half way out, you’ve got live electricity
那种你差不多能触到的。如果你可以把你的手指头放进去的话。
that you can kind of touch. If you can get a finger in there.
嗯…不是这里。
Well, not here.
因为在这个插头底部的空隙间，你可以看到绝缘体将插头隔开
‘Cos on the live and neutral pins on the bottom, you can see insulation extends half way through
如果这个插头的距离足够沟通电流的话… …
them. If the plug is far enough in to make a connection…
像这样
Like that.
你只能碰绝缘的部分。
…all you can touch is the insulation.
好了，这明显就是它的安全特性。
Okay. So that’s the obvious safety features.
那么内部又如何呢？
What about on the inside?
你必须要记住，1992年以前，英国政府不需要在电器上有插头，
‘Cos you’ve got to remember, until 1992, the British government did not require that electrical
如果你买了一个烤箱或者是洗衣机，
appliances had plugs on them. If you bought a toaster or a washing machine, you would
你最后差不多，都要在机器尾部得到一个，赤裸的电线。
get, almost always, a bare wire at the end.
你只能自己去安装这个电线。
And you’d be expected to wire the plug yourself.
所以我在学校有教如何把电线插进去，因为在那时候，
So I got taught how to wire a plug in school. ‘Cos that was still a required skill back
这依然是一个很被人需要的技能。
then.
好了，如果我把这个打开… …
Here we go. If I open this up…
第一，这有个保险丝。直到定下标准为止，它一直都是手工制品。第二次世界大战的时候
First: there’s a fuse. And that’s an artifact of when the standard was made. Post-WW2, there
那里铜短缺，如果在每一个插头里面都安装一个保险丝的话，
was a copper shortage, and it was a lot cheaper to require a fuse in every plug and just build
只需要把电缆的电路做成一个循环在整个屋子里的圆，
the circuit as one loop of cable going round the whole house than it was to have loads
或者单独的铜丝穿过整个房子，每一个都需要一个保险丝。前者比后者要便宜多了。
of individual copper strands going out all over the house and a fuse for each.
所以他们只做了一个巨大的电路，每个插头里面都放了一个保险丝。这样就会更安全。
So they just made the house one giant circuit, put a fuse in each plug. That’s now safer.
这里就有三根电线。
Then you’ve got the three wires.
蓝色的是中性的。B-L，L代表着左边，蓝色去左边。
Blue is neutral. B-L, L for left, blue goes to the left.
棕色的是活的。B-R,R代表着右边。活的去右边。
Brown is live. B-R, R goes to the right. Live goes to the right.
你还可以这样记棕色是活的：如果你不小心用它碰到了自己的话，
You can also remember that live is brown because that’s the colour your trousers will go if
你裤子的颜色就会变成棕色。
you accidentally hit yourself with it.
最后，是这一条。黄绿色的。这是地线。
And finally, there’s this one. Green and yellow. That’s the earth, or the ground wire. Now
在正常操作中，那个不应该被使用，但是如果其他的操作都失败的话，
in normal operation, that shouldn’t be used, but it’s basically a return path if all else
它基本上是一个返回路径。
fails.
如果整个插头或者装置出了什么电路问题的话，它就会隔绝它，
If something goes electrically wrong in the plug or in the appliance, that will ground
这样整个电路就可以安全地不伤害到人们。
it and all the electricity will safely go away from people.
如果那里没有连接上，就会产生问题了。不过，你可以稍微碰一下这个面包机的金属位置。
‘Cos if that disconnects, and there’s a problem, well, you could touch the metal bit of this
这样电就会自己通过你，然后通过你的心脏。
toaster and the electricity could ground itself through you, and through your heart.
也就是非常糟糕的。
Which is bad.
所以取而代之的是，你可以在这里调整这个电线。这真是聪明的一点，
So instead, you have this wire here. And this is the really clever bit, this is the bit
这一点很多人都不知道。
that not many people know about.
你看到那个松弛的线了吗？在这电缆上有一个拖拽它的力，
You see that slack in the wire just here? In the event there’s a tug on this cable,
有些地方弄错了，其他所有的东西开始磨损然后跑出来，包括活的和中性的。
something goes wrong, and all these start fraying and coming out, the live and the neutral,
危险的是，它们会首先被拉出来。
the ones where the danger is, they’ll get pulled out first.
然后，这个接地线就会出来。
And then, the earth wire will come out next.
所以在这一系列的被破坏和磨损中，最有可能的是接地线将要
So in the event of damage, of fraying, it’s most likely that the earth wire is going to
成为最安全的一个，这样没有人就会被电死。
be the safe one, and no-one’s going to get killed.
好了：英国插头。这是我遇见过的最棒的一个设计，
So there you go: the British plug. Genuinely one of the best bits of design I’ve ever come
不过有一个例外，如果你在扔掉别的东西的过程中，
across, with one exception, which is that if you just let it fall on the ground because
不小心让它掉到地上… …
you’re just throwing something out of the way…
结果基本就是这些尖端会朝上，也就意味着
…it will almost certainly end up with the points pointing upwards. Which means in the
在半夜你起来的时候，不小心踩上它真的会很疼。
middle of the night, when you stand on it, it is really going to hurt.
你还可以记住这一点，因为活的那个是棕色的，因为如果你不小心用它碰到了你，
You can also remember that because the live one is brown, because that is the colour your
这就会是你裤子上的颜色。呃，一大片黄色，还有… …
trousers will go if you accidentally hit yourself with it. Er, and the big yellow and…
… …你还好吗？
…you OK there?
[大笑的声音]“我没有看到那个！”
[LAUGHTER] ‘I didn’t see that coming!’
从来没有人这样过。呃… …
No-one ever does. Erm…
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