electro-Physics: 17.3409 volts

[Jules Richardson]

On Mon, 2004-12-13 at 09:39 -0500, Patrick Finnegan wrote:
> On Monday 13 December 2004 09:29, Paul Koning wrote:
> > I don't actually know where 50 and 60 Hz came from, nor 100 and 115
> > and 220 and 240 volts.  There may be some ancient justification in
> > the tinkerings of various 19th century engineers, but it seems to me
> > it makes most sense simply to view them as random numbers.
> 
> Probably 115/120V was chosen, because it was the correct voltage to make 
> a pickle glow. ;)

Ha ha!

I found this, which gives a little bit of history:

http://users.pandora.be/worldstandards/electricity.htm

I like the bit about DC - personally I think I'd rather grab a 240V AC
line than a 110V DC one!