1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from my Heart Radio. 2 00:00:12,160 --> 00:00:14,640 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:14,720 --> 00:00:17,759 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer at I Heart Radio. 4 00:00:18,200 --> 00:00:21,000 Speaker 1: And how the tech are you? Yeah, I'm gonna stick 5 00:00:21,040 --> 00:00:24,000 Speaker 1: with that one, and welcome to the first episode of 6 00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:27,920 Speaker 1: what I'm calling tech Stuff Tidbits. These will be shorter 7 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:31,440 Speaker 1: episodes in which I tackle a particular topic in tech 8 00:00:31,920 --> 00:00:34,800 Speaker 1: and explain it as quickly as I can, which, uh 9 00:00:35,360 --> 00:00:37,919 Speaker 1: actually is not fast at all because I'm from the 10 00:00:37,960 --> 00:00:40,920 Speaker 1: southern region of the United States and we have a 11 00:00:40,960 --> 00:00:44,680 Speaker 1: predisposition of turning a two minute story into a forty 12 00:00:44,760 --> 00:00:48,840 Speaker 1: minute yarn. So you know, sit back. But I plan 13 00:00:48,920 --> 00:00:52,440 Speaker 1: on bringing these sorts of episodes in on Wednesdays when 14 00:00:52,440 --> 00:00:56,120 Speaker 1: I'm not doing like a multipart episode where I'm covering 15 00:00:56,120 --> 00:00:58,600 Speaker 1: a really big part in tech. So here we go, 16 00:00:59,240 --> 00:01:01,640 Speaker 1: And the topic I want to talk about today is 17 00:01:01,800 --> 00:01:05,680 Speaker 1: the various voltage standards and electric plugs and outlets you 18 00:01:05,720 --> 00:01:08,319 Speaker 1: find around the world. In fact, there are a lot 19 00:01:08,360 --> 00:01:11,480 Speaker 1: of different ones all around the world used by various countries. 20 00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:15,080 Speaker 1: Sometimes you find different ones within a single country, and 21 00:01:15,360 --> 00:01:19,240 Speaker 1: that applies both to voltages and two outlets, and anyone 22 00:01:19,280 --> 00:01:22,160 Speaker 1: who has traveled internationally knows that this is a thing, 23 00:01:22,720 --> 00:01:24,880 Speaker 1: and they can become a real hassle when you're trying to, 24 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:28,759 Speaker 1: you know, manage travel because of the different outlets and voltages. 25 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:30,880 Speaker 1: So if you bring along something like, I don't know, 26 00:01:30,959 --> 00:01:34,520 Speaker 1: your favorite hair dryer or a computer, or you know, 27 00:01:34,600 --> 00:01:37,480 Speaker 1: a charging cable for your phone, you might find that 28 00:01:37,520 --> 00:01:40,240 Speaker 1: you can't plug it into anything because the outlets are different, 29 00:01:40,240 --> 00:01:42,000 Speaker 1: and you probably wouldn't want to plug it in if 30 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:44,520 Speaker 1: you could, because the voltage might be different. You can 31 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:47,319 Speaker 1: even destroy electronics if you plug them into an adapter 32 00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:51,760 Speaker 1: that fits the outlet, but the voltage is drastically different 33 00:01:51,800 --> 00:01:54,080 Speaker 1: from your home country. And I thought it might be 34 00:01:54,080 --> 00:01:58,800 Speaker 1: interesting to talk about those different standards and why they exist. Okay, 35 00:01:58,840 --> 00:02:01,280 Speaker 1: but let's start with a quicker pressure on electricity. So 36 00:02:01,320 --> 00:02:04,559 Speaker 1: when we talk about electricity, we often refer to stuff 37 00:02:04,600 --> 00:02:07,480 Speaker 1: like voltage and current, and I don't know about you, 38 00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:09,800 Speaker 1: but for me, it can get pretty confusing. I always 39 00:02:09,840 --> 00:02:11,960 Speaker 1: like to do a refresher on these things. So the 40 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:14,839 Speaker 1: analogy folks tend to like to use is you think 41 00:02:14,840 --> 00:02:17,919 Speaker 1: of it like a water system. So imagine you've got 42 00:02:17,919 --> 00:02:21,919 Speaker 1: a big old tank of water with a a faucet 43 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:24,520 Speaker 1: like a port at the base of the tank. So 44 00:02:24,560 --> 00:02:27,320 Speaker 1: if you open that up, it allows water to flow 45 00:02:27,600 --> 00:02:31,519 Speaker 1: from the tank out and maybe you've got a pipe 46 00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:34,680 Speaker 1: attached to the tank. This is your classic gravity system 47 00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:37,160 Speaker 1: that are used by water tanks all over the world, 48 00:02:37,520 --> 00:02:40,800 Speaker 1: all right, So the amount of water that's flowing through 49 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:44,000 Speaker 1: the pipe when you open up the faucet, that's like 50 00:02:44,040 --> 00:02:49,119 Speaker 1: electric current. The water pressure is like voltage. So as 51 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:53,120 Speaker 1: the water level of the tank goes down, the water 52 00:02:53,280 --> 00:02:57,480 Speaker 1: pressure decreases because there's not as much weight pressing down 53 00:02:57,600 --> 00:03:00,440 Speaker 1: on the water that's escaping through the pipe. That seems 54 00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:03,480 Speaker 1: pretty intuitive, right. The water pressure goes down, so you're 55 00:03:03,480 --> 00:03:06,720 Speaker 1: still having the same amount of water coming through, it's 56 00:03:06,760 --> 00:03:10,920 Speaker 1: just not being pushed as hard. Now. An electricity voltage 57 00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:14,400 Speaker 1: really describes the potential difference in two points of an 58 00:03:14,400 --> 00:03:18,200 Speaker 1: electrical system or field, and the greater the difference, the 59 00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:21,519 Speaker 1: greater the voltage. And if the potential difference is small, 60 00:03:21,639 --> 00:03:24,080 Speaker 1: the voltage is small. It's kind of like that water 61 00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:27,639 Speaker 1: tank analogy. When the water level gets really low. Now, 62 00:03:27,639 --> 00:03:31,920 Speaker 1: when you want to transmit electricity over long distances, you 63 00:03:31,960 --> 00:03:33,919 Speaker 1: need a good amount of voltage. You need a good 64 00:03:33,960 --> 00:03:36,440 Speaker 1: amount of pressure in order to do that. Now, part 65 00:03:36,480 --> 00:03:38,200 Speaker 1: of the reason for that, there are actually a lot 66 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:39,840 Speaker 1: of reasons. We're not going to go into all of them, 67 00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:41,600 Speaker 1: but part of the reason is that the lines that 68 00:03:41,680 --> 00:03:45,280 Speaker 1: you use to transmit electricity, you know, the cables, they 69 00:03:45,280 --> 00:03:48,400 Speaker 1: are not perfect conductors. And if we go back to 70 00:03:48,440 --> 00:03:51,640 Speaker 1: the water analogy, imagine that the pipes have some like 71 00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:54,320 Speaker 1: corrosion or maybe some leaks and stuff in them, and 72 00:03:54,400 --> 00:03:58,000 Speaker 1: this resists the flow of water. Well, in electricity we 73 00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:00,800 Speaker 1: see that too. It's called electrical resistance when you're talking 74 00:04:00,840 --> 00:04:05,480 Speaker 1: about an imperfect conductor, and conductors under normal conditions are 75 00:04:05,480 --> 00:04:08,920 Speaker 1: all imperfect. Something else we need to talk about is 76 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:12,840 Speaker 1: direct current versus alternating current. And again we're gonna just 77 00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:15,760 Speaker 1: do really surface level stuff here. So direct current is 78 00:04:15,800 --> 00:04:17,640 Speaker 1: what you get when you hook a battery up to 79 00:04:17,720 --> 00:04:21,599 Speaker 1: a simple circuit. Electricity just flows in one direction. Now, 80 00:04:21,839 --> 00:04:25,120 Speaker 1: we can describe current as flowing from the positive terminal 81 00:04:25,200 --> 00:04:28,520 Speaker 1: to the negative terminal, even though the flow of electrons 82 00:04:28,600 --> 00:04:30,840 Speaker 1: is in the opposite direction. It goes negative terminal to 83 00:04:30,920 --> 00:04:33,240 Speaker 1: positive terminal. But that's something you're gonna have to take 84 00:04:33,320 --> 00:04:36,000 Speaker 1: up with. Mr Benjamin Franklin the next time you see them. 85 00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:40,360 Speaker 1: The electricity always flows in one direction. With direct current, 86 00:04:40,880 --> 00:04:44,000 Speaker 1: it's like a one way street. It starts at one terminal, 87 00:04:44,279 --> 00:04:47,320 Speaker 1: goes through the circuit, ends at the other terminal. That's it. 88 00:04:47,440 --> 00:04:52,800 Speaker 1: With alternating current, the direction that electricity flows switches many 89 00:04:52,800 --> 00:04:55,800 Speaker 1: times a second. It reverses. It goes starts at one 90 00:04:55,920 --> 00:04:59,080 Speaker 1: terminal and goes to the other, and then reverses that. 91 00:04:59,080 --> 00:05:00,760 Speaker 1: That's going to be part of the a discussion here. 92 00:05:00,760 --> 00:05:02,800 Speaker 1: As in the good old us of A, where a 93 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:05,359 Speaker 1: lot of the early working electricity was taking place, you 94 00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:10,360 Speaker 1: had people like Nicola Tesla and George Westinghouse making decisions 95 00:05:10,400 --> 00:05:14,480 Speaker 1: to settle on alternating current and at a frequency of 96 00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:18,920 Speaker 1: sixty hurts, that is, changing the direction that the electricity 97 00:05:18,960 --> 00:05:22,719 Speaker 1: is flowing in sixty times a second. They saw that 98 00:05:22,800 --> 00:05:27,839 Speaker 1: as being best for transmission. Moreover, Tesla and Westinghouse kind 99 00:05:27,839 --> 00:05:31,159 Speaker 1: of wanted to transmit at a voltage of two forty 100 00:05:31,240 --> 00:05:36,440 Speaker 1: volts because it was more efficient. If you were to 101 00:05:36,480 --> 00:05:40,240 Speaker 1: try and transmit at lower voltages, you had some power loss, 102 00:05:40,400 --> 00:05:43,039 Speaker 1: which means you weren't you know, you weren't creating and 103 00:05:43,040 --> 00:05:46,120 Speaker 1: transmitting electricity as efficiently as you could, which means you're 104 00:05:46,120 --> 00:05:49,119 Speaker 1: actually having to produce more than what you needed because 105 00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:52,479 Speaker 1: you were losing stuff along the way. All right, let's 106 00:05:52,480 --> 00:05:54,559 Speaker 1: get back to direct current. So in the early days, 107 00:05:54,800 --> 00:05:58,760 Speaker 1: Thomas Edison, who was Mr Direct Current and his one 108 00:05:59,440 --> 00:06:02,120 Speaker 1: volts d C current, that was the only game in 109 00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:04,440 Speaker 1: town for the most part in the early early days 110 00:06:04,839 --> 00:06:08,200 Speaker 1: of the electrification of the United States, and so everything 111 00:06:08,320 --> 00:06:12,400 Speaker 1: in the ecosystem ran on d C power, including stuff 112 00:06:12,440 --> 00:06:14,800 Speaker 1: like lamps, you know, the stuff that you would actually 113 00:06:14,839 --> 00:06:18,360 Speaker 1: want to run on electricity. It was dependent upon d 114 00:06:18,480 --> 00:06:22,120 Speaker 1: C and DC is pretty simple from an engineering standpoint. 115 00:06:22,440 --> 00:06:25,520 Speaker 1: Making devices that run natively on direct current is just 116 00:06:25,600 --> 00:06:29,080 Speaker 1: easier to do than something that runs on alternating current. 117 00:06:29,120 --> 00:06:32,480 Speaker 1: We technically for most stuff that runs on a C 118 00:06:32,760 --> 00:06:35,240 Speaker 1: for a lot of stuff anyway, not most, a lot 119 00:06:35,279 --> 00:06:38,719 Speaker 1: of stuff, we have to have a device to convert 120 00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:40,840 Speaker 1: that from a C to d C before it then 121 00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:43,799 Speaker 1: goes on to power whatever it is we're using. Edison 122 00:06:44,400 --> 00:06:47,159 Speaker 1: viewed a hundred ten volts as being a balance between 123 00:06:47,680 --> 00:06:50,440 Speaker 1: safety and practicality. So he thought of a hundred ten 124 00:06:50,520 --> 00:06:53,400 Speaker 1: volts as being a low enough voltage that the average 125 00:06:53,440 --> 00:06:58,000 Speaker 1: person wasn't likely to electrocute themselves while using electricity, and 126 00:06:58,080 --> 00:07:00,560 Speaker 1: it would also be strong enough to push current out 127 00:07:00,640 --> 00:07:04,000 Speaker 1: to a decent range. So he thought that the two 128 00:07:04,440 --> 00:07:08,440 Speaker 1: forty volts that Westinghouses a C System was proposing was 129 00:07:08,520 --> 00:07:11,600 Speaker 1: being you know, dangerous, and that it was over kill. 130 00:07:11,960 --> 00:07:14,520 Speaker 1: At least that's how he he promoted it. It could 131 00:07:14,680 --> 00:07:16,840 Speaker 1: very well be that he didn't think that and he 132 00:07:16,920 --> 00:07:19,800 Speaker 1: was just promoting his own because that was what he 133 00:07:19,840 --> 00:07:22,040 Speaker 1: had to offer. But at any rate, that was the 134 00:07:22,080 --> 00:07:24,520 Speaker 1: messaging he gave out that two forty volts would be 135 00:07:24,560 --> 00:07:27,520 Speaker 1: would kill you. By the way, we really got to 136 00:07:27,560 --> 00:07:30,480 Speaker 1: worry about amps more than volts when you're talking about 137 00:07:30,520 --> 00:07:34,120 Speaker 1: the deadly nature of electricity. But I've talked about in 138 00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:39,040 Speaker 1: previous episodes. So moving back, d C had one big disadvantage, 139 00:07:39,040 --> 00:07:41,800 Speaker 1: which is that it is harder to transmit DC over 140 00:07:41,920 --> 00:07:44,800 Speaker 1: large distances, at least it was back in the day. 141 00:07:44,920 --> 00:07:46,960 Speaker 1: So it would mean that you would have to build 142 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:49,400 Speaker 1: a lot more power plants, and you have to locate 143 00:07:49,480 --> 00:07:51,800 Speaker 1: them close to wherever you were going to be using 144 00:07:51,840 --> 00:07:55,480 Speaker 1: that electricity, otherwise known as the load. So you would 145 00:07:55,480 --> 00:07:58,760 Speaker 1: have to have power plants located near neighborhoods because as 146 00:07:58,760 --> 00:08:01,720 Speaker 1: you moved further away from the our generation facility, the 147 00:08:01,800 --> 00:08:04,200 Speaker 1: voltage would drop off and you would kind of lose 148 00:08:04,240 --> 00:08:06,880 Speaker 1: pressure in other words, and the flow wouldn't be strong 149 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:09,760 Speaker 1: enough to power the stuff you were plugging in. But 150 00:08:10,520 --> 00:08:13,320 Speaker 1: a C could take advantage of something that d C couldn't. 151 00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:16,760 Speaker 1: It could take advantage of transformers. Now, these are simple 152 00:08:16,840 --> 00:08:21,680 Speaker 1: electrical components that can boost or step up, or decrease 153 00:08:21,800 --> 00:08:26,280 Speaker 1: or step down voltage. It works on a simple electromagnetic 154 00:08:26,320 --> 00:08:28,720 Speaker 1: principle that I'm not going to go into here because 155 00:08:28,720 --> 00:08:31,120 Speaker 1: I have covered it dozens of times in past tech 156 00:08:31,120 --> 00:08:35,360 Speaker 1: Stuff episodes. But the important bit is that with transformers, 157 00:08:35,360 --> 00:08:37,960 Speaker 1: you can generate electricity and you can send it out 158 00:08:38,040 --> 00:08:41,360 Speaker 1: at one voltage. You can step that up, you know, 159 00:08:41,440 --> 00:08:44,480 Speaker 1: step up the voltage hundreds of times if you needed 160 00:08:44,520 --> 00:08:48,360 Speaker 1: to in order to transmit it across thousands of miles. 161 00:08:48,400 --> 00:08:51,680 Speaker 1: And then once you start getting close to where the 162 00:08:51,679 --> 00:08:54,439 Speaker 1: electricity is going to be used, you have other transformers 163 00:08:54,480 --> 00:08:58,319 Speaker 1: that stepped down the voltage and send it on to say, 164 00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:03,600 Speaker 1: businesses and homes. Now that's important because if the voltage 165 00:09:03,600 --> 00:09:07,439 Speaker 1: remained super high the whole way through the quote unquote 166 00:09:07,440 --> 00:09:10,880 Speaker 1: pressure of the electricity would burn out. Your electronics. This 167 00:09:10,920 --> 00:09:13,320 Speaker 1: is what can happen if you just use a simple 168 00:09:13,360 --> 00:09:17,719 Speaker 1: adapter to plug a device into an outlet in a 169 00:09:17,800 --> 00:09:21,880 Speaker 1: country that uses a a you know, higher voltage. So 170 00:09:21,920 --> 00:09:25,360 Speaker 1: if you're coming from say the United States, where the 171 00:09:25,440 --> 00:09:29,000 Speaker 1: voltage is volts, more on that later, because that's kind 172 00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:34,280 Speaker 1: of tricky, and you go to say the you know, Europe, 173 00:09:34,320 --> 00:09:38,520 Speaker 1: where you might run into two two volts and you 174 00:09:38,520 --> 00:09:42,320 Speaker 1: don't have a way of reducing that voltage. The pressure 175 00:09:42,520 --> 00:09:46,360 Speaker 1: that voltage is possibly going to destroy whatever it is 176 00:09:46,400 --> 00:09:48,360 Speaker 1: you plug into that outlet, even if you have an 177 00:09:48,400 --> 00:09:52,360 Speaker 1: adapter for it. Um or it may make catch on fire, 178 00:09:52,520 --> 00:09:55,120 Speaker 1: you know that kind of stuff. I actually saw an 179 00:09:55,120 --> 00:09:59,480 Speaker 1: episode of Sordid Food on YouTube recently, great great channel, 180 00:09:59,480 --> 00:10:03,040 Speaker 1: by the way, a bunch of British blokes making food. 181 00:10:03,440 --> 00:10:06,160 Speaker 1: But I saw an episode Unsorted Food recently where they 182 00:10:06,200 --> 00:10:09,560 Speaker 1: got a Japanese toaster and they tested it out on 183 00:10:09,679 --> 00:10:14,320 Speaker 1: a British outlet and it immediately burnt out the toaster 184 00:10:14,480 --> 00:10:17,320 Speaker 1: because it was too much voltage. So word to the wise, 185 00:10:17,600 --> 00:10:20,560 Speaker 1: all right, that's some grounding right there, so to speak. 186 00:10:20,720 --> 00:10:22,679 Speaker 1: That's a that's a pun. But we're gonna take a 187 00:10:22,760 --> 00:10:25,119 Speaker 1: quick break and we'll be back to talk about voltages 188 00:10:25,200 --> 00:10:37,079 Speaker 1: and outlets. Okay, let's get back to talking about Tesla. Here, 189 00:10:37,160 --> 00:10:39,480 Speaker 1: he had determined that two hundred forty volts would be 190 00:10:39,480 --> 00:10:41,680 Speaker 1: a good starting point because it would lead to less 191 00:10:41,679 --> 00:10:45,960 Speaker 1: power loss when transmitting electricity, but Edison successfully argued that 192 00:10:45,960 --> 00:10:49,640 Speaker 1: to forty volts would be too dangerous, and ultimately Westinghouse 193 00:10:49,679 --> 00:10:53,040 Speaker 1: went with a hundred ten volt a C system in 194 00:10:53,080 --> 00:10:55,840 Speaker 1: the early days of the electrification of the United States. 195 00:10:56,840 --> 00:10:59,120 Speaker 1: This would not be as efficient as a two forty 196 00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:01,800 Speaker 1: volt system would be, but otherwise it worked just as 197 00:11:01,840 --> 00:11:05,600 Speaker 1: I described. So the US moves forward using a hundred 198 00:11:05,640 --> 00:11:09,439 Speaker 1: ten volts, and we'll get back to that in a bit. Meanwhile, 199 00:11:09,559 --> 00:11:12,520 Speaker 1: over in Europe, the various countries were looking at building 200 00:11:12,520 --> 00:11:15,840 Speaker 1: out their own electric grids, but they came to a 201 00:11:15,880 --> 00:11:19,480 Speaker 1: similar conclusion to Tesla. Namely, countries discovered that it would 202 00:11:19,520 --> 00:11:23,800 Speaker 1: be more efficient and therefore more cheap to operate if 203 00:11:23,800 --> 00:11:27,480 Speaker 1: they pushed out electricity at a higher voltage in order 204 00:11:27,559 --> 00:11:31,520 Speaker 1: to send it to customers. Sure, it might be more dangerous, 205 00:11:31,760 --> 00:11:34,600 Speaker 1: but the savings were hard to deny, and so European 206 00:11:34,640 --> 00:11:38,600 Speaker 1: countries largely settled on between two hundred twenty two forty 207 00:11:38,679 --> 00:11:42,199 Speaker 1: volts for a c transmission. Now, this is in the 208 00:11:42,520 --> 00:11:45,360 Speaker 1: early part of the twenty century. At this point, like 209 00:11:45,600 --> 00:11:50,520 Speaker 1: late nineteenth early twentieth century. Now, Europe also departed a 210 00:11:50,600 --> 00:11:54,160 Speaker 1: little bit from Tesla's vision. Because Tesla had said, you know, 211 00:11:54,280 --> 00:11:57,679 Speaker 1: two d forty volts at sixty hurts, you know the 212 00:11:57,880 --> 00:12:00,920 Speaker 1: frequency of sixty hurts. These countries chose to go with 213 00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:04,640 Speaker 1: a different frequency. Uh, the United States was at sixty hurts, 214 00:12:04,720 --> 00:12:08,920 Speaker 1: but most of the countries in Europe went with fifty hurts. Now, 215 00:12:08,960 --> 00:12:12,040 Speaker 1: there are several stories about why Europe went this way. 216 00:12:12,800 --> 00:12:16,280 Speaker 1: Most of them center on the German company a E G. 217 00:12:17,080 --> 00:12:20,800 Speaker 1: A G actually traces its history back to Thomas Edison. 218 00:12:20,920 --> 00:12:23,680 Speaker 1: It it comes out of a company that was founded 219 00:12:23,720 --> 00:12:27,839 Speaker 1: by Edison in Germany when Edison was expanding his operations 220 00:12:27,920 --> 00:12:32,360 Speaker 1: throughout the world. One story is that engineers observed that 221 00:12:32,600 --> 00:12:37,240 Speaker 1: at forty hurts frequency, you could use that electricity to 222 00:12:37,360 --> 00:12:41,040 Speaker 1: power a lightbulb, but the lightbulbs would flicker. You could 223 00:12:41,040 --> 00:12:44,480 Speaker 1: actually notice that they were flickering, And it's because they 224 00:12:44,520 --> 00:12:51,280 Speaker 1: were flickering in within the interval of those reversals of electricity, 225 00:12:51,360 --> 00:12:54,319 Speaker 1: because it's doing it forty times a second. However, if 226 00:12:54,360 --> 00:12:58,120 Speaker 1: you increase the frequency to fifty hurts, the flicker was 227 00:12:58,240 --> 00:13:00,760 Speaker 1: fast enough so that it was imperceptive. Bowl right, we 228 00:13:00,800 --> 00:13:02,800 Speaker 1: would just see it as being a solid light. We 229 00:13:02,840 --> 00:13:06,079 Speaker 1: couldn't see that it was actually flickering. So that's why 230 00:13:06,559 --> 00:13:10,599 Speaker 1: they adopted fifty hurts as their standard. However, that's just 231 00:13:10,720 --> 00:13:15,160 Speaker 1: one story. Another story says that the metrics standard sequence 232 00:13:15,480 --> 00:13:19,920 Speaker 1: that the German engineers were using went one to five 233 00:13:20,120 --> 00:13:23,640 Speaker 1: and it wouldn't include six, and so it would be 234 00:13:23,720 --> 00:13:29,360 Speaker 1: inconvenient to choose a frequency of sixty hurts because of 235 00:13:29,440 --> 00:13:31,840 Speaker 1: the metric standard that they were using, so they chose 236 00:13:31,920 --> 00:13:35,679 Speaker 1: fifty hurts instead. I don't know that that's true. I 237 00:13:35,840 --> 00:13:39,120 Speaker 1: honestly don't know that that's actually the case. These stories 238 00:13:39,200 --> 00:13:42,679 Speaker 1: could be apocryphal, but one way or the other, the 239 00:13:42,720 --> 00:13:45,319 Speaker 1: trend in Europe was to adopt a transmission standard of 240 00:13:45,320 --> 00:13:49,920 Speaker 1: around two h volts and fifty hurts. One thing we 241 00:13:50,040 --> 00:13:52,199 Speaker 1: can say for certain is that a e G had 242 00:13:52,240 --> 00:13:56,079 Speaker 1: a pretty strong presence, like almost a monopoly, and so 243 00:13:56,840 --> 00:14:01,280 Speaker 1: by setting that as their approach, it was probably very 244 00:14:01,360 --> 00:14:05,959 Speaker 1: influential for other countries in Europe to kind of follow suit. Um. 245 00:14:06,920 --> 00:14:09,320 Speaker 1: But even with that, I don't mean that every place 246 00:14:09,400 --> 00:14:12,320 Speaker 1: in Europe adopted a similar standard. Even in the UK 247 00:14:12,880 --> 00:14:16,240 Speaker 1: you had a dozen or so competing methods in certain 248 00:14:16,320 --> 00:14:20,000 Speaker 1: regions up up to like nine I think in London 249 00:14:20,080 --> 00:14:22,840 Speaker 1: at one point nine or ten. There was a clear 250 00:14:22,960 --> 00:14:25,680 Speaker 1: need for standardization because it would be kind of a 251 00:14:25,800 --> 00:14:29,280 Speaker 1: nightmare for pretty much everyone involved if you had all 252 00:14:29,320 --> 00:14:33,480 Speaker 1: these different outlet designs and voltages and frequencies within a country, 253 00:14:33,800 --> 00:14:37,120 Speaker 1: you would have to make stuff for specific regions or 254 00:14:37,200 --> 00:14:39,080 Speaker 1: else you would run the risk of your stuff not 255 00:14:39,280 --> 00:14:42,520 Speaker 1: working for all your customers, or worse, causing a fire 256 00:14:42,680 --> 00:14:46,760 Speaker 1: or something. It would take the UK decades to adopt 257 00:14:46,840 --> 00:14:50,280 Speaker 1: a fifty hurts standard, and they only did so after 258 00:14:50,400 --> 00:14:53,880 Speaker 1: World War Two. But in the intervening years between the 259 00:14:54,040 --> 00:14:57,400 Speaker 1: very beginning of electrification and World War Two, there was 260 00:14:57,480 --> 00:15:02,760 Speaker 1: an organization called the International tro Technical Commission that attempted 261 00:15:03,120 --> 00:15:07,080 Speaker 1: to create a standardized outlet voltage and frequency to be 262 00:15:07,280 --> 00:15:10,600 Speaker 1: used primarily throughout Europe. The group got to work in 263 00:15:10,640 --> 00:15:13,480 Speaker 1: the years following World War One and they were trying 264 00:15:13,560 --> 00:15:16,840 Speaker 1: to get countries to kind of sign on to this 265 00:15:17,080 --> 00:15:22,080 Speaker 1: idea of a universal standard. But tensions in Europe grew 266 00:15:22,640 --> 00:15:26,160 Speaker 1: not related to electricity and then we had World War 267 00:15:26,280 --> 00:15:30,320 Speaker 1: Two and all the the you know, the projects of 268 00:15:30,440 --> 00:15:33,000 Speaker 1: trying to get everybody on the same page. That obviously 269 00:15:33,080 --> 00:15:35,880 Speaker 1: went on the back burner as all out war was 270 00:15:35,960 --> 00:15:38,760 Speaker 1: breaking out throughout Europe. Now, by the end of World 271 00:15:38,840 --> 00:15:42,840 Speaker 1: War Two, various countries were pretty entrenched in their own 272 00:15:43,680 --> 00:15:47,320 Speaker 1: power systems, their outlet designs, voltages, all that kind of stuff. 273 00:15:48,400 --> 00:15:51,680 Speaker 1: Convincing countries to abandon the system they had in place 274 00:15:51,840 --> 00:15:54,880 Speaker 1: in order to adopt a new universal standard, it was 275 00:15:54,920 --> 00:15:57,000 Speaker 1: pretty much a loss cause, I mean every country would 276 00:15:57,040 --> 00:15:59,960 Speaker 1: want to say, okay, yeah, let's have a universal standard. 277 00:16:00,280 --> 00:16:02,560 Speaker 1: Let's have it be ours and everyone else can adopt 278 00:16:02,640 --> 00:16:04,440 Speaker 1: what we use, because we don't want to have to 279 00:16:04,520 --> 00:16:09,440 Speaker 1: go through the incredible expense and the enormous amount of 280 00:16:09,480 --> 00:16:13,360 Speaker 1: resources that would take to convert over for us. So 281 00:16:14,560 --> 00:16:16,280 Speaker 1: everyone else should just get on the same page that 282 00:16:16,320 --> 00:16:19,840 Speaker 1: we're on. Well, that's what everyone was saying. So you 283 00:16:19,960 --> 00:16:23,560 Speaker 1: had these established ecosystems, it would be an enormous amount 284 00:16:23,600 --> 00:16:26,520 Speaker 1: of money and resources in order to switch over to 285 00:16:26,600 --> 00:16:30,120 Speaker 1: a new method, so nobody did. Uh. These countries also 286 00:16:30,160 --> 00:16:33,360 Speaker 1: had various colonies and territories around the world. You know, 287 00:16:33,520 --> 00:16:36,800 Speaker 1: this was still in the days of massive colonization. I mean, 288 00:16:36,880 --> 00:16:40,360 Speaker 1: we're not out of that now, but it was really 289 00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:44,240 Speaker 1: prevalent around this era of the twentieth century. So the 290 00:16:44,320 --> 00:16:46,720 Speaker 1: grid systems that were set up in places like Asia 291 00:16:46,840 --> 00:16:50,720 Speaker 1: and Africa largely mirrored the versions that were present in 292 00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:55,880 Speaker 1: the colonizer's home countries, thus proliferating those specific implementations around 293 00:16:55,920 --> 00:16:59,000 Speaker 1: the world. This is why you know, if you were 294 00:16:59,040 --> 00:17:02,280 Speaker 1: to travel through Africa, you might encounter different outlets in 295 00:17:02,440 --> 00:17:05,640 Speaker 1: different countries because at one time or another they were, 296 00:17:06,400 --> 00:17:09,880 Speaker 1: you know, an extended territory of like France or England. 297 00:17:10,600 --> 00:17:12,720 Speaker 1: Now most of the world operates on the two twenty 298 00:17:12,800 --> 00:17:17,000 Speaker 1: to two forty volt range. North America and the northeastern 299 00:17:17,080 --> 00:17:19,639 Speaker 1: half of South America are mostly on the one hundred 300 00:17:19,720 --> 00:17:24,119 Speaker 1: to one hundred twenty seven volt range. And you know 301 00:17:24,160 --> 00:17:26,560 Speaker 1: I said that US had switched to a hundred ten volts. 302 00:17:27,119 --> 00:17:30,840 Speaker 1: It eventually moved to a hundred twenty volts, but ultimately 303 00:17:31,280 --> 00:17:34,000 Speaker 1: the United States chose the two hundred forty volts for 304 00:17:34,080 --> 00:17:39,040 Speaker 1: transmission at sixty hurts. But and this is important, the 305 00:17:39,160 --> 00:17:42,920 Speaker 1: US also split that two hundred forty volts into two 306 00:17:43,320 --> 00:17:48,000 Speaker 1: one twenty volts circuits. Once the transmission lines arrive at 307 00:17:48,040 --> 00:17:51,040 Speaker 1: a building or house. So we still say that the 308 00:17:51,160 --> 00:17:55,119 Speaker 1: US operates on a hundred twenty volts transmits at two forty. 309 00:17:55,680 --> 00:17:59,360 Speaker 1: But the outlets you see those are one twenty volt outlets. 310 00:17:59,760 --> 00:18:02,880 Speaker 1: And because again the devices we were using would burn 311 00:18:02,960 --> 00:18:05,600 Speaker 1: out or worse if we connected them to too high 312 00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:09,159 Speaker 1: a voltage. But big appliances are a little bit different. 313 00:18:09,200 --> 00:18:12,120 Speaker 1: You know, stuff like clothes dryers or electric ovens, which 314 00:18:12,160 --> 00:18:16,600 Speaker 1: require a lot more power than your typical plug and appliance. 315 00:18:17,280 --> 00:18:20,400 Speaker 1: These would use a special neutral wire that would allow 316 00:18:20,520 --> 00:18:22,920 Speaker 1: the appliance to a tap in tap into both of 317 00:18:23,040 --> 00:18:29,119 Speaker 1: the volts circuits at the same time. So these special plugs, 318 00:18:29,160 --> 00:18:31,280 Speaker 1: and if you've ever had to plug in, you know, 319 00:18:31,440 --> 00:18:35,119 Speaker 1: an oven or or a dryer, you've seen these plugs 320 00:18:35,160 --> 00:18:37,200 Speaker 1: that don't look like anything else in the United States. 321 00:18:38,160 --> 00:18:42,320 Speaker 1: These plug into outlets that provide the full two d 322 00:18:42,440 --> 00:18:47,159 Speaker 1: forty volts of electricity because it needs that level of 323 00:18:47,240 --> 00:18:51,320 Speaker 1: quote unquote pressure to operate. So this is why you 324 00:18:51,400 --> 00:18:53,560 Speaker 1: know you often have to buy a plug for some 325 00:18:53,640 --> 00:18:56,000 Speaker 1: of these, they don't necessarily come with them. I should 326 00:18:56,040 --> 00:18:59,000 Speaker 1: also do an episode about how for the longest time, 327 00:18:59,640 --> 00:19:03,119 Speaker 1: UH electronics in the UK didn't come with their own plugs. 328 00:19:03,160 --> 00:19:05,879 Speaker 1: They came with a wire, a copper wire, and you 329 00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:08,480 Speaker 1: had to wire up the plug yourself. But that's for 330 00:19:08,560 --> 00:19:11,000 Speaker 1: a different episode. The U S version of an outlet, 331 00:19:11,080 --> 00:19:13,879 Speaker 1: by the way, is either the Type A or the 332 00:19:14,040 --> 00:19:16,720 Speaker 1: Type B type AS that kind of has just two 333 00:19:16,760 --> 00:19:18,919 Speaker 1: slots in it. The Type B that is like one 334 00:19:18,960 --> 00:19:24,800 Speaker 1: that has two slots plus the round ground wire approach. 335 00:19:25,560 --> 00:19:27,320 Speaker 1: So when you go to different countries, you might need 336 00:19:27,400 --> 00:19:29,680 Speaker 1: more than just an adapter to plug your electronics in. 337 00:19:29,800 --> 00:19:32,240 Speaker 1: You might need a transformer so that you can change 338 00:19:32,280 --> 00:19:34,560 Speaker 1: the voltage in an effort to you know, not turn 339 00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:38,959 Speaker 1: your toaster into a flamethrower or whatever, or alternatively make 340 00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:41,359 Speaker 1: sure your toaster gets enough juice so that it can 341 00:19:41,520 --> 00:19:46,680 Speaker 1: toast bread. And that is why that happened, because everybody 342 00:19:46,920 --> 00:19:50,359 Speaker 1: was building out their power grids around the same time, 343 00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:53,919 Speaker 1: and uh, they all kind of adopted their own internal 344 00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:57,440 Speaker 1: standards and it got to be a big old mess. Okay, 345 00:19:58,440 --> 00:20:00,720 Speaker 1: that's the first of tech stuff ad bits. We're gonna 346 00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:02,680 Speaker 1: do more of these in the future on Wednesdays. Hope 347 00:20:02,720 --> 00:20:05,240 Speaker 1: you enjoyed it. If you have suggestions for topics, please 348 00:20:05,280 --> 00:20:07,200 Speaker 1: reach out to me on Twitter, the handle is text 349 00:20:07,200 --> 00:20:10,080 Speaker 1: stuff H s W and I'll talk to you again 350 00:20:10,920 --> 00:20:19,120 Speaker 1: really soon Y. Text Stuff is an I heart Radio production. 351 00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:22,159 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i 352 00:20:22,320 --> 00:20:25,480 Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 353 00:20:25,600 --> 00:20:26,480 Speaker 1: your favorite shows.