Why do some countries have differently shaped electrical outlets/adapters?
In: Technology
Rewind to the early 1900’s when electricity started to show up in regular homes.
There wasn’t even any plugs then. It was all circuit breakers and hard-wired systems.
And the system was often the property of the power company itself, you were not allowed to decide for yourself what to connect to it.
(my granddads dad, for example, paid a fixed monthly rate PER LIGHT BULB the first five years he had his home electrified.)
When the plugs came around and became a thing, the power company provided them for you.
As a result, you didn’t necessarily have the same plugs as your neighbour. Because the power company could have changed their mind and started buying elsewhere. Or maybe that neighbour got his power from another power company.
My point is that even in a small country, you had literally *hundreds* of power companies. All with their own absolute right to decide for themselves what sockets and plugs to use.
When it was time to settle down and simplify things, it was because they regulatory authority had prepared a standard. And talked it through well with all the power companies. And when the standard got set in stone, it made everyone happier because it simplified shit for everyone.
Often, people tend to think that they have been good enough already when they *finally* managed to regulate their domestic market. trying to also regulate an international market, where every participant comes from the same point where you yourself are today, is pretty hard.
Yet it is done. Europe, that has historically been 20 or so independent domestic markets with their own regulatory bodies, is now finally starting to look at these things. Try to make things simpler for everyone. It’s a long way to go, but we are slowly getting international standards…
Latest Answers