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Path: utzoo!dciem!ntt
From: ntt@dciem.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Not 120 V at 60 Hz
Message-ID: <972@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 6-Jul-84 18:54:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: dciem.972
Posted: Fri Jul  6 18:54:08 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 6-Jul-84 20:26:23 EDT
Organization: NTT Systems Inc., Toronto, Canada
Lines: 23

There was a column in yesterday's paper reminiscing about the time
when the Toronto area was converted to 60 Hz electrical supply.
I had believed that 110 V, 60 Hz, was practically universal in North
America fifty or sixty years ago, and then there was a change to 120 V
sometime.  In fact, Toronto was not brought into line until the period
1954-59; the former supply was 25 Hz, for all of Southern Ontario.

Can anyone either comment on, or point me to a reference on, this matter?
For instance:
	- Were there other large cities that were late to standardize?
	  (I remember reading something about Chicago once.)
	- If so, what did they use?  (Frequencies, AC, DC; other voltages too?)
	- When did 60 Hz really become a standard in North America?
	- Am I right about 110 -> 120 V, and if so, when did that happen?

	- And what about other countries?  When did they standardize?
	  Was there ever a chance of the world settling on one approximate
	  standard voltage and frequency instead of two of each?

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Mark Brader, NTT Systems Inc.