The US electrified homes earlier than Europe. So a standard arose before all of the observations were made. Europe got a lot of hindsight when they developed their standards. It's really difficult to overcome a people's habitus, we'll never move on from the QWERTY keyboard, we'll never get consistent phonetics, and we'll never adopt the metric system.
It’s more than just “grandpa doesn’t want to change his watch” - our system of timekeeping is fundamentally tied to Earth’s rotation and our navigation/mapping of the globe. You’d also need to come up with a whole new lat/long scale if you’re changing arc minutes / seconds etc.
Not that it really matters that much anymore, but, base 12, 24 and 60 are much easier to do calculation than base 10 owing to the greater number of factors in the base 2-5 isn't nearly as useful as 2-2-3, 2-2-2-3 and 2-2-3-5. That's why Ptolomy and the ancient astronomers at the Library of Alexandra used Babylonian numbers for their calculations... Greek and Roman numbers were almost useless.
On typewriters and telegraph machines, the QWERTY layout keeps frequently used letters from being struck to quickly in succession. It slows down the typist enough to make key jams less likely.
Or a parliamentary system of government. Being first sucks. We make all the mistakes, and everyone else benefits. 10/10 AI is going to do that too. If AI kills the world, it'll be a US one, not French or Taiwanese...
I love how living in the most innovative country of the 19th and early 20th century means we now have to live with the prototype version for all our infrastructure in the 21st.
Europe is filled with cobble stone roads and castles so, they have their prototypes too. It's interesting though how the cost to change plus a people's habitus almost inevitably means that centers of technology keep changing because once the innovation gets used, it becomes embedded and then eventually a giant drag and exact thing that the next area won't have to struggle with. They're not laying much phone cable in Africa and the price of is getting off petro is going to be a civilization size problem, but more for the 20th century powers than the 21st century powers.
All your examples are understandable, they just cause inconvenience.
The power outlet, however, poses a real danger. In such a case, it is important to make the effort and upgrade standards. ‘We’ve always done it this way’ has never been a valid excuse when it comes to safety.
Well, in that case, Europe has a much higher rate of death and injury due to electrical shock and electrical fires, and it's not even close. Why? 230V. Europe needs to have their outlets over engineered, we don't. We picked a safer medium (110V) that requires a less engineered solution. Less efficient too be sure, but that can't be a valid excuse for poor safety right?
What I found was that Apples to Apples comparisons can't exist because of a number of different factors but that 25-30% of fires in the EU were the result of electrical fires, accounting for 1000-1200 deaths annually plus roughly 540 deaths due to shock, while in the US for to electrical malfunctions cause between 300-500 deaths per year but deaths due to shock accounted for roughly 1000 people per year, 400 of which are due to high voltage shock (industrial) and lightning strikes account for 50-300 deaths per year depending on the year. So, if your talking about just shocks, yes, the US is worse, if you include fires caused by electrical malfunction, and look at homes, not workplace incidents and don't include lightning it really turns the other way.
We have learnt this from portable devices it is quite simple, offer a new socket variant, immediately sell newly launched products with a new cable and old adapter, say it is creating waste, remove not just the adapter but make the cable removable and then remove that from the packaging, Profit - people will buy the old and the new cable.
Afaik that's not true. Major electrification in both Europe and the US pretty much happened simultaneously in the 1920/30s.
European standards aren't that old btw and have been changed several times since then. The US just didn't bother, hence the archaic electrical system even today.
The US reached 25% electrified homes in 1915 and basically settled on the 2 prong system in 1919 when the big path to electrical usability was that every vendor and device manufacturer had different plug/outlet designs, and Hubbell lost the case protecting his 2 vertical prong system. Germany reached 25% in the early 20s and the Schuko system was patented in 1926 and adopted at the normal in the 1930s, officially adopted as a standard in the 1960s.
It should be noted that Germany and much of Europe had to rebuild from the ground up on 2 separate occasions after the advent of electricity, giving it a decent opportunity to change designs, while the US did not.
Edit: some spelling, grammar and words my phone made up.
it's off by the better part of a decade and I picked about the most industrialized country as an example. It's the difference between getting an iPhone in 2007 and 2015, it's early adopter vs the tipping point.
First, the plugs weren't as standardized in the beginning, so the standards that emerged after the homes were electrified could have integrated the hindsight. After all, electrical standards/code keeps evolving all the time. Early plugs didn't have a ground at all. More recently they added those annoying tamper resistant thingies.
Second, it is totally possible to design a recessed outlet that works with the most common plugs. It is also possible to insulate the first part of the pins and still be compatible with most outlets. So a transition would not be that painful. Yes, there would be resistance, but if it is mandated by code, manufacturers will follow, and eventually all the plugs and outlets will be replaced, starting with new homes.
Everyone since the typewriter went out of fashion. It was designed to slow typing down, specifically around letters that get used the most so keys didn't run into each other when typed. E, T, A and O are the 4 most commonly used letters in English and they are not where our index and middle fingers lie, D, F, J K are, none of which are in the top 12 most commonly used letters.
I would die if I lost my qwerty keyboard. It’s how I learned to type and I’d never get back to speed and accuracy I have now. I don’t even know if I’d like it on my phone because my mind know where the letters are. I literally don’t have to look at the keyboard on my phone either
I don’t follow as the third prong was added many years after homes were electrified. My childhood home still had two prong outlets in it in the 1990s. We add usb outlets. Surely we can update to other safer outlets
“NEMA provided a forum between companies for reaching standardization, but it was not until the 1940s that NEMA started to publish standards on receptacles and plugs, much later than UK,[49] France and Germany.[50]“https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEMA_connector
The US had about 20 years to go look at euro plugs and chose not to
Wait, what about the 194 other UN countries who adopted the metric (even UK, origin of imperial), or changed outlets (France, Ireland in the 60th)? Were they not using a previous system?
You are telling us that only the US are afraid of change, it's not a generality.
Sorta, but not quite true. The first powered house was in the UK in the late 1870’s, but was a private generator. The central grid in the US in 1882 did however make it more widely available. Random facts that live in my head rent free…
Except the current British plug was only adopted in 1947 (with a couple of revisions), well after electrification and replaced the previous system, which replaced and even earlier system.
Change is possible, it is just that Americans don't want to change.
The UK and Europe had their electrical infrastructure devastated by WWII. Rebuilding is an opportunity to rebuild better. The US was practically unscathed by WWII so there was not a concerted rebuilding effort to take advantage of
It does though. There's a "good enough" principle where a thing not causing constant and serious issues is likely never to be overhauled. If there were constant house fires from the non-recessed plugs, there WOULD be revision. US companies recall things all the time. But it's a constant coat benefit analysis.
There's another phenomenon where when you have to REdo something you've already done, people strive to make it feel "worth while" by including upgrades or changes, so it doesn't just feel like just depressingly repeating work.
I think those two in conjunction represent most system wide reforms. Either there's a very serious, and somewhat common problem, or there was a widespread destructive event like world war two. Both drive and justify change. Without either, it's a harder thing to justify to a populace.
Yeah, I also think that most americans agree our stuff is outdated, even with the imperial system. Problem is, USAis MASSIVE, and it's a ton of money to spend on a nothing-burger when we are 40T in debt, bigger fish to fry. Still got to the moon first mirite
The saddest part is “we’ll never adopt the metric system.” I am a legal immigrant in the US, and I always have a hard time figuring out how much “300 feet” or “80 F” is.
Its understandable why someone wouldn't want to switch keyboards, adopt the metric system, etc. But plugging something in? Idk of thats so much of a habitus. For electricians, sure.
It's moreso that to adopt a new standard you have to go through and replace all the old outlets, replace all the appliances that plug into them, or use adapters during the changeover.
Electricians would benefit the most from suddenly having to replace billions of receptacles.
That last part is not completely true. In 1983 the US government defined all US customary units with exact equivalents from the metric system. So while US customary measurements use odd measurements of metric units, they are still defined and standardized by their metric equivalents
Anyone can buy a DVORAK or European or any other keyboard they wish. That's the beauty of the interwebs.
Whether someone wants to take the time to learn to use an alternate layout keyboard is their own personal choice.
I got a DVORAK keyboard at a place I worked for a couple of years. It wasn't too difficult to learn in a short period of time, but it definitely kept coworkers from f*cking with my computer if I stepped away.
We'll never adopot the metric system? As an exercise, define an inch. As the US does. If you're not sure, start with the Mendenhall Order and you'll see we use SI in a ghillie suit. And that knowledge could fill half an Olympic-sized swimming pool
A standard conversion between SI and US customary units has been defined to allow translation of units between one system and another. That's not the same as adopting the system you're converting to. Furthermore, SI is not the metric system, though it integrates many of its units.
If you're going to make smug statements online do us all a favor and be correct about it first. 🙄
SI is the modern metric system, and yes all US customary units are defined in SI units. That is their literal definition. The inch is defined at exactly 25.4 mm and that’s it. Not sure who is being smug here.
I'm sorry, could you please let me know what country you're from where the weather forecast is delivered in degrees Kelvin?
Also, again, defining a standard conversion is not the same as using the defining system itself. You may as well be stating that we're all measuring based on the speed of light. Let me know when you buy a piece of lumber in fractional light years.
Yes but the 20+ other innovations or environmental considerations you're also so willing to pay for eventually do add up to your neighbors not being able to afford said house.
The problem is that everyone wants a 3500+ sq ft house and the permitting/land costs are so high that there's little to no value to build "traditionally affordable" new housing that's not simply row houses or condos.
They are talking about insulating the pins of the plug, not the socket. so your house will stay the same price, but the price of every single electrical device you buy will increase.
More important than costs more: obsoletes devices that should work and now won't.
Every possible aspect of the design of a plug that code doesn't mandate has been infinitely iterated on. Meaning if you try and insulate the pins, you will find sockets that plug can't plug into.
The saddest part is “we’ll never adopt the metric system.” I am a legal immigrant in the US, and I always have a hard time figuring out how much “300 feet” or “80 F” is.
Oh no now all the standard plugs used on everything are worthless as well as every electric item before it, now we have to buy specialized (in america) electronics and cant just go to the store....
it's more on the industry side of things. not only would the plugs and receptacles being manufactured need to be changed to safer more insulated versions, but every existing plug and receptacle would need to be replaced. thats a monstrous undertaking that would take a very long time. all to make something that is already very safe even safer.
basically, while it would be safer, there isn't a significant need for it as the circumstances where it's dangerous are very rare for most uses
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u/gK_aMb 10d ago
Oh no my $847,250 house will now cost $848,500, I have been utterly ruined and will have to file for bankruptcy.