Electrical grounding accessory

Abstract

A wafer-like body of electrical insulating material having three prong-receiving apertures therethrough configured and disposed to receive the two power line prongs and the ground prong of a standard three-prong electrical plug. Embedded within the wafer-like body is a contact device of resilient electrically conductive material, part of which is exposed in the ground prong aperture so as to yieldably interfere with the ground prong and make sustained electrical contact therewith when the prongs of the plug, which are insulated from one another, are passed through their respective receiving apertures enroute to being inserted into corresponding sockets of a grounded power outlet. A connection can thereby be made from the outlet ground to the contact device via the ground prong of the plug. A first length portion of a wire lead is embedded in the wafer-like body and is electrically connected to the contact device, while the remaining length portion extends away from the body for grounding a remote component not otherwise grounded by the plug. The contact device may have several forms, including a bifurcated device whose legs traverse the ground prong aperture and are urged further apart by the entering ground prong, a sheet metal device having a hole, such as a circular hole, defined by ground prong engaging tips of spring fingers radiating outwardly from the hole circumference, and an electrically conductive elastomer device having a cruciform slitted portion or pilot hole in the path of the ground prong.