Hooray, victory, 440 volts

DEg, yes, this is a classic attempt to “add 220+220 and get 440”, as if sockets were flashlight batteries 🙂 But in a real network 220 V is between the phase and the neutral. If you take two sockets in the same apartment/on the same feed, then with a high probability they have the same phase and the same neutral — and with “series connection” you will either get the same 220, or cause a short circuit/fireworks, not “doubling”. 440 V can only be obtained if:

• take two different phases in a three‑phase network — then between them there will be about 380 V (not 440);
• or if you actually have two independent sources of 220 V, isolated from each other, and you connect them correctly in series (in everyday life this is hardly about “two sockets”).

So the idea in the picture is of the “scheme that the greatest minds worked on… and the electrician later laughed for a long time (or cried)”.