Photo 17: Technology

One of the pains of moving to Australia from the U.S. is that the electrical sockets are different, both in shape and in wattage. Australia uses a lower voltage, so forget about bringing things like hair dryers or other high powered devices without a big step-down converter. 

I just learned that, ironically, the Australian socket design actually derives from an old American design. According to this website:

The original design of the Australian power plug originated in 1930, as a “gentlemen’s agreement” between Fred Cook of Ring-Grip, Geoffrey Gerard of Gerard Industries and Brian Harper Miller of the SECV. This occurred prior to the formation of any standards body in Australia. 

The design originally drew on a power connector in the USA at that time. The US connector was also the basis of the Argentinean and Chilean connectors around the same period. China adopted a variant of this connector some years later. 

The key advantages of the Australian connector was its low price to manufacture, utilised a fraction of the material of other power connectors. Oddly, the original US connector which prompted this design has subsequently disappeared into obscurity.

So, there ya go.

Stopped to smell the roses.