Safety, electrical grounding outlet with safety switch

Claim 1

An electrical grounding outlet, comprising: a plug receptacle having a ground prong hole and a plurality of circuit prong holes for receiving the ground prong and circuit prongs, respectively, of a corresponding and mating multiprong grounding plug; grounding means and a plurality of separate circuit contacts secured to said receptacle, said ground prong hole being in communication with said grounding means and each of said circuit prong holes being in communication with one member of said plurality of separate circuit contacts, with the grounding means and the circuit contacts engaging a ground prong and circuit prongs, respectively, of the aforEmentioned plug when the prongs thereof are matingly inserted into the receptacle holes; a plurality of separate circuit terminals secured to said receptacle, each of said circuit terminals being associated with one member of said plurality of separate circuit contacts to form a plurality of non-bridging partial circuits; separate switch means associated with each of said non-bridging partial circuits, said separate switch means being mutually actuable to close or open said non-bridging partial circuits and thereby establish or interrupt electrical communication between the circuit terminal and the circuit contact thereof; a non-conductive actuator disposed within said receptacle for actuating said separate switch means, said actuator being reciprocally displaceable between an opened circuit position and a closed circuit position, said separate switch means being actuated to close said non-bridging partial circuits when said actuator is displaced from the opened circuit position to the closed circuit position, and said separate switch means being actuated to open said non-bridging partial circuits when said actuator is displaced from the closed circuit position to the opened circuit position; said actuator being adjacent said ground prong hole when said actuator is in the opened circuit position whereby the insertion of the plug ground prong into the ground prong hole displaces said actuator from the opened circuit position to the closed circuit position; and means responsive to the removal of the ground prong from the ground prong hole for displacing the actuator from the closed circuit position to the opened circuit position.