On Sat, 18 Jun 2005 22:58:54 +0100,it is alleged that "Mike"
spake thusly in uk.d-i-y:

[snip]

I don't know what frequency (or voltage) he used but Tesla's company
distributed AC mains in the US before it reached Europe.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternating_current , so it may be
inaccurate but sounds reasonable:

"It is generally accepted that Nikola Tesla chose 60 hertz as the
lowest frequency that would not cause street lighting to flicker
visibly. The origin of the 50 hertz frequency used in other parts of
the world is open to debate but seems likely to be a rounding off of
60hz to the 1 2 5 10 structure popular with metric standards."


From my own knowledge I am fairly certain that a German company was
responsible for the usage of 50 Hz in Europe, it may have been
Siemens, but my memory is fallible :-)

In any case, in a region like Europe, having a well established AC
system of one frequency in the area would tend to encourage the usage
of that frequency elsewhere to facilitate crossover of equipment and
appliances, thus leading to savings in various things I slept through
in economics class;-)

--
The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short
phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if
it stops moving, subsidize it.
- Ronald Reagan