It had more to do with ungrounded small appliances being used on a grounded appliance and the resulting shock hazard. This was from about the same time as Underwriters Laboratories mandating push to turn surface unit controls.Sadly the outlets have disappeared here as well. They were so convenient for plugging in your small appliances. Cost savings I guess.
Did this perhaps come out of the Quebec Electrolux plant near Montreal (which closed in the last 10 years)?Nice looking Kenmore electric range
Looks to be somewhere in the 80s, probably made by Westinghouse
The outlets disappeared because of the danger of chords, touching hot heating elements and causing shorts and shocks, it was a very easy standard to get manufacturers to agree to because it saved them money so they lobbied UL in the United States to get rid of outlets.
There were definitely times when an outlet on an electric range was a wonderful thing because a lot of older kitchens did not have enough outlets and heavy enough circuits for things like portable dishwashers and the outlet on the electric range was great because you had a full 15 or 20 amp circuit available for additional appliances, etc.
I even had a customer that had a window air conditioner in the kitchen plugged into the range.
John L
On my 1953 Westinghouse, there is a fuse for the receptacle, backsplash and oven lights, and the clock. It is located beneath the left rear surface unit. Any GE - Hotpoint ranges I've ever seen also had a fuse or circuit breaker for those items. I'm pretty certain Frigidaire did too. What we usually didn't have was fuses for individual elements, though a friend of the family had one from around 1950 that had several fuses located at the top of one of the storage drawers.The outlets on Canadian stoves had fuses which apparently American ones did not. If you did happen to have an unfused US made stove and it was the cause of a fire etc then you insurance company would deny any claims.