Re: ice age

Posted by HH56 On 2012/8/10 11:33:42

Keith, Thanks for pointing out the electric motor driving the compressor. Just skimmed the article first time looking for the name of the NY company trying to make it work and missed it. I still think I remember another article mentioning the company or a person that worked for the company which did that first air conditioned theater being involved in the early auto attempt.

Interesting question about the voltage. I looked at a couple of sites and appears it was originally 110 DC chosen by Edison when he first wired commercially. When Tesla came up with AC he kept it because it was a convenient and efficient voltage. Also because some of the in use DC items of the time could actually be used on AC as well if the voltage remained the same. Another plus for adoption of the AC standard -- no massive customer revolt and the added efficiency of AC for the utility.

Later it went to 120 because that was a convenient voltage derived when using step down transformers. Today while nominally 120, it varies by region and load on the system with wide latitude on spec. Most modern appliances are designed to work reliably from 100 to 130. Other countries use different for various reasons.