electro-Physics: 17.3409 volts

[Tom Jennings]

On Mon, 13 Dec 2004, Carlos Murillo wrote:

> Almost random, I concur, but there were definite technical factors
> behind.  It took a while for people to settle
> on 60Hz or 50Hz.  Some interesting tidbits mostly taken from
> "Engineers and Electrons" by Ryder & Fink, IEEE Press:


Good find!

> Edison's interest was not safety: at the time, he held the patent to the
> only available power usage meter, but it only worked with DC. Also, some
> of the competing light companies used arc lamps, which require
> high voltages.  Finally,  Westinghouse held Tesla's patent for the
> induction motor.  

Clearly, trying to determine much of this with logic is useless.