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Thanks for all your replies to this thread, but as one of the correspondent's observes, we still do not have definitive answer
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The answer is apparently in clause 15 of the original edition of the standard, BS1363:1947, which mandates a visible earth conductor according to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BS_1363
I have always understood this to be the function although don't specifically recall reading BS1363:1947. It is corroborated by the many catalogues advertising visible earth connections on many types of plug. I cannot think of any plug in which the notch does not reveal the conductor. There is a lot of circumstantial evidence that this is the only 'correct' purpose for the slot.
Lucien