is that a fake photo? It has a three plug outlet I never saw till new building rules about 1968.
The old outlets all had two prong holes, not three. One hole was the “hot” wire, the other the neutral, often called “ground”.
Often electric equipment, fans, drills, saws, electric lawn mowers, would have the metal casing around the motor grounded to the neutral. If you touched it with wet hands or while standing on wet grass, you got a jolt! The plug was not polarized with a wide and narrow slot to keep polarity straight. It was common to see a plug with the “ground” plug clipped or broken off so it could be used in a two prong outlet.
When people replaced their old outlets with three prong outlets, there was a problem as the old wiring only had two wires ( hot and neutral) and no ground. So some smart guys started placing a small wire from the green ground screw of the outlet and run it over to the neutral screw side so the neutral carried both to ground.
On the breaker box,the hot wire comes off the breaker, and the ground and neutral go to the ground. new wires have at least three wires. Hot, Neutral and an uninsulated “ground”.
I shudder to see some of the hack electrical wiring jobs I’ve seen in old houses.
“Often electric equipment, fans, drills, saws, electric lawn mowers, would have the metal casing around the motor grounded to the neutral. If you touched it with wet hands or while standing on wet grass, you got a jolt! The plug was not polarized with a wide and narrow slot to keep polarity straight. It was common to see a plug with the “ground” plug clipped or broken off so it could be used in a two prong outlet.”
Yes, the advent of “double insulating” power tools and plastic/bakelite housings.