Message-Id: <20031108185152.XRLI20018.imf16aec.mail.bellsouth.net@[68.212.104.11]>

MIke wrote,
   >Sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour.  Why did the
   >rest of the world use 50Hz?
that's as I understood it.

I note that many electric railway and streetcar systems still use the
25 hz frequency.

SOmebody else in this thread asked about why ac instead of DC.  I was
reading about this in a newsgroup shortly after the big blackout in
the NOrtheast  and it was noted that there are losses when
transmitting dc over long distances.


AS for the 60 hz thing, another reason for that standard was its ease
for the interdependent power grid.  AGain one wonders why the rest of
the world standardized on 50 hz, but I think it has to do with our
large  generation and distribution infrastructure which isn't present
throughout much of the rest of the world.  Except for texas most
everybody else  is tied in with the grid so that when one location
goes down others pick up the slack.

73 de nf5b





Richard Webb

Electric Spider Productions
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

--- Benjamin Franklin, NOvember 1755 from the
Historical review of Pennsylvania