Have you ever wondered why there are so many different sockets and plugs and cords when you travel the world? I often hear friends complaining about blowing sockets out when they go overseas, or about having to buy so many different adapters when traveling.
“Clark, why can’t they all be the same?” they ask me. “Why haven’t power cords been standardized?”
There is a long answer and a short answer. The short answer is they have. The long answer is where we start our story. Don’t yawn! While this tale may seem simple, it is a hallowed story marked by patent corruption, war, and colonialism…
It begins in the late 1800’s with Thomas Edison. Many people believe that Edison invented the light bulb. This is not true. He was the first person to harness electricity and create a light bulb that was efficient for home use. Edison soon founded an electricity company with a goal of using direct currents to power homes across the country. Direct currents were very successful and people began using them in their house very frequently. The only issue was direct currents could not transmit electricity over long distances.
Nicola Tesla, who had briefly worked for Edison, wanted to introduce alternating currents which solved the distance issue that direct currents faced. Edison’s direct currents would require far more power plants than Tesla’s more economic and space saving alternative. However, Edison did not think that Tesla’s alternating currents were a proper fix to the problem and believed them to be dangerous, as they had to travel farther. Edison and Tesla continued their feuds. While Edison ended his life financially stable renowned for a number of innovations, Tesla ended his life alone, claiming that Edison had stolen his patents. Tesla eventually died, by himself, after proposing his love to a pigeon.
While people ended up adopting both direct and alternating current, alternating current became globally embraced. During Edison and Tesla’s legendary rivalry, as more and more countries stared using alternating currents to supply long distance power, different plugs and sockets were put into place. However, no one was checking in on each other to make sure that their plugs and electric voltage matched, or who was using which currents.
This calamity came to a zenith during the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. As scientists and engineers flooded to the Louisiana Purchase to highlight the latest and greatest in electric technology, they were met with an onslaught of different plug and socket needs. Participants quickly realized that international standards needed to be set in order to share scientific discoveries across the world.
And thus, the International Electro-technical Commission was born. They had one goal in mind; to unite forces and create an international standard so that the world could share scientific and electric innovations. It was not a simple task. Harvey Hubbell had already introduced the separable attachment plug, and Philip Labre introduced the third grounded pin in 1928, but people were still developing and using their own plugs. As the years continued, the fight over voltages continued, with people arbitrarily choosing Edisons’ original 110V standard common in the United States or the 240V widely used in Germany.
Though the IEC was trying with all their might to introduce a new standard, but they had little authority as a non-profit organization. Just when they started to make headway, disaster struck. World War II broke out, dividing the globe. However would the IEC be able to introduce an international standard over all of this fighting? As the war continued, many of Europe’s resources for creating and manufacturing plugs and electrical wires were depleted or destroyed in air raids. When the war finally ended, the Europe, especially the United Kingdom, started from near scratch. They managed to develop a more efficient plug and outlet, but used their own resources, thus continuing the cycle of unstandardized plugs.
In addition to the diversity of plugs throughout Europe, different areas of the world grappled with different outlets. For example, Great Britain spent a large part of its history heavily influencing India through their quest of colonization. When Britain began developing their outlets and electronics, they implemented these standards in India. However, after World War II, British colonialism in India had essentially ended, and a new updated version of the outlets were never introduced. Thus, India continues to use older versions of the British outlets.
Stories of different outlets can be told throughout the globe. Israel has its own standard used nowhere else in the world while El Salvador juggles ten different standards. While the IEC still provides useful information and works hard to encourage countries to implement universal standards, many still chose to diverge on their own road.
And that is the brief history of the electric socket. Don’t let all of these different standards make you nervous! Quail has plenty of International Power Cords to go around. If you’re planning to globetrot anytime soon, our sales staff will be more than willing to help you pick out the international cord of your dreams.
By Clark Cable
Clark Cable is quite the traveler himself. To research this article, Clark went to 70 different countries, and tried out each electrical outlet personally. He connected in Cambodia, plugged in in Panama, and surfed the web in Swaziland. His favorite part of his journey, though, was zip lining across power lines in Zimbabwe (warning: do not try this, unless you are electrocution-proof like Clark).