Plugs

[bubba28]

Why do different countries have different electric plugs that you need to use? Is all electricity not all the same?

[squarebear]

Because they are different countries and have different developments. Electricity in essence is the same but different countries have different voltages.

[heathfield]

Believe it ir not, there were various committees that met on and off for about 26 years trying to come up with an acceptable design for a common European mains plug. This committee disbanded a few years ago, after it was admitted that different countries were never, ever, going to reach an agreement.
More here.

[vehelpfulguy]

While we can pop across to a different country with ease nowadays, this was not, of course, always the case.

Countries tended to be fairly isolated and developed their own systems without much reference to anyone else.

It is only nowadays that we have a global economy that their are attempts to standardize.

Are you aware, for example, that before the advent of trains we did not even have a standard TIME here in the UK. The time in London was different to the time in Bristol, which was different to the time in Manchester and so on.

Because it took people 2 or 3 days to get from one city to another the fact that the clocks were all different did not matter.

It was only when trains travelled between cities in a few hours that the times of the clocks became important. Of course it helped with train timetables as well.

[dundurn]

bubba - in some respects the electricity may not be the same - e.g. in USA alternating current operates at 60Hz whereas in UK it's 50Hz, so just having a suitable adapter isn't necessarily going to get your TV set or computer to work.

As for the plugs, different countries standardised each on their own internal model. The UK for many years held out against everybody else's model on the ground that three pin plugs were safer. We even undertook a major conversion from round pin plugs to the current rectangular pins in the 1960s, still refusing to match up with anybody else.

vhelpfulguy I think the timetables were the prime mover behing the standardisation. They actually created Railway Time on the GWR tied to GMT which was taken up by the other companies over a couple of years.

[buildersmate]

Whether the frequency is 50 or 60Hz doesn't frankly matter when it comes to running stuff. Alright a few AC motors might get a bit shirty if they are switched to 60Hz.
No, what's rather more important is the US uses 110V so your average hairdryer is only going to deliver a quarter - yes, a quarter, not a half of the power output. That's not enough to dry off a baldy head.
In India and S Africa they use the very same round three pin plugs originally exported by us from here. They are the only places now to use them.

[rojash]

Here in Greece we use round plugs which are not keyed like English plugs. This means that you have no idea which side of a device is connected to Neutral and which to Live. When I am gigging, we use English distribution boards, and all our band gear has English plugs, so that we can be sure that everything is connected the same way round.