Question: How do Scientists Set Current Date, Time

[Submariner]

I am guessing that the difference was picked such that an european made generator/motor would not be compatible with US standards and vice versa as a means of market protection.

Not exactly. AEG in Germany standardized on 50 Hz in 1891 due to flicker of lights at lower frequency. Since they dominated the European scene at the time, that became the standard. Westinghouse went to 60 Hz in 1890 thinking that electric arc lights would operate more efficiently. I think it was more of a technical evolution thing at that time than market protection. Besides, it does not take much to alter generator design for 25 Hz vs 50 Hz vs 60 Hz. Here in Ontario, generators operating at 60 Hz, large and small, hydro driven or steam driven, have been supplied by both North American and European suppliers.

 

[Submariner]

Edison at the time was petitioning for a DC transmission system, carrying probably what I guess would be 24V. His argument was that lower DC voltage was not a shock hazzard, and went on tour electricuting animals with 120V AC power to prove the dangers of Tesla's proposal. Tesla's AC system was much much cheaper to implement and had much lower power losses, so for the sake of economics rather than public saftey, Tesla won.

Yes, the Edison vs Tesla war is a classic, and some of Edison's tactic's are largely seen as shameful today. However, the statement that AC had much lower loses is not true. Transmission of DC power has significantly fewer losses than AC. The reason that AC won over DC was due to the ease of stepping up/down voltages using transformers. At the time, it was very difficult to increase or lower voltages on a DC system. Today, DC is used to transmit power over long distances due to much lower losses. Take a look at a transmission map of North America and you will see long distance DC lines from large remote generation sources (like northern Manitoba, northern Quebec, Oregon) heading south to large load centres (like New York, New England, southern California).

 

[IM469]

Yes, the Edison vs Tesla war is a classic, and some of Edison's tactic's are largely seen as shameful today. However, the statement that AC had much lower loses is not true. Transmission of DC power has significantly fewer losses than AC. The reason that AC won over DC was due to the ease of stepping up/down voltages using transformers. At the time, it was very difficult to increase or lower voltages on a DC system.

This is the source of the confusion. HVDC does have less loss than HVAC but that was not the problem - there was no DC to DC distribution transformers then. Edison's 100V DC distribution system (for his incandescent lamps) ran 100 VDC from generation to customer. This limited the distance you could provide service because of the voltage drop caused by the current passing through the wire. The voltage drop across the wire represented lost power and was directly proportional to the current going through it. If Edison's system delivered 100 and lost 1 watt of power through the wire - an AC system easily stepping the voltage to 5,000 volts would only lose 0.02 watts on the same wire. It is in that framework that Tesla's power distribution had less loss than DC transmission.

A side note that illustrates the genius of Nikola Tesla, DC was required to run electric motors until Nikola Tesla invented the AC motor. That was probably the coup de grâce for DC.

 

[DelicateFlow]

Very carefully? I don't even understand how watches keep up with the time.