In message , NY writes
"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...





60hz works on 50hz transformers. The reverse is less lilkely to be true

Ah, OK. I thought it might be a reciprocal arrangement, but evidently
it's not.

I wonder how US came to standardise on 60 Hz and Europe on 50 Hz in the
first place.

There's a current thread in one of the UK amateur radio forums, where
the following links were given. They make interesting reading
(especially the second one).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_...ity_by_country
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_frequency

Back in the 1980s I had a switchable 120/240V razor, which buzzed in
synchronism with the mains. In the USA, the 60Hz buzz was quite
obviously not the 50Hz I was used to at home.



--
Ian