Thread by @tech963

What are these old electrical plugs, what historical value do they hold, what legacy do they still have today and why are they (somewhat) linked to the very limited electrical supplies in Italy?

Read below to find out more... 🧵

Let's start by comparing them. Ignoring the fact that their shape is completely different, they also have different pin spacing and thickness, so they almost have nothing alike.

And yet, both of them are "type L" Italian plugs. So why are they so dissimilar?

Well, this has to do with the way the electical service was distributed to your house back in the day: you see, back in the 50s most devices actually ran on 120 (sometimes 150) volts!

This was because back then electrical devices were few and didn't require a lot of power. However if you had an appliance 120V wasn't enough, so you got 220V... but you still kept the 120V supply!

This is how it worked: most houses back then had two supplies, one at 120V and one at 220V, the 220V part just being two phases from a 220V 3-phase transformer.

The two supplies were metered and taxed separately, the idea being that if you had, for example, a washing machine (which was very expensive at the time!) then you could certainly pay the higher price of the 220V supply

From what I've heard the 120V supply was very limited (it cut out at 2kw, I think), so even fridges used the 220V line just to avoid using the 120V one too much, even though they didn't need that much power

Anyways, the 120V line existed to prevent people from using it for appliances, since it was mostly meant for lighting and for things like radios. Using a transformer to set the voltage up was actually illegal (!) as it circumvented the taxation of the 220V line

To prevent people from plugging 120V devices into the 220V line you had two types of plugs which were incompatible, the ones in that picture. However, as time moved on even the smaller plug started to be used for 220V (nowadays 230V).

Anyways, the final 120V network was disconnected in 1999 (!!!), but the legacy left behind is still felt to this day.

First of all, we still have two types of plug. Except that we also have Shucko plugs because Germany, and Europlugs because that's what a lot of devices use.

So this leads to a whole lot of confusion and adaptors are super common over here (most appliances nowadays use Shucko, but most houses don't have Shucko sockets!)

However... remember that thing about the 120V line being limited to 2kw? Yeah. It had some lasting effects...

You see, because of this limitation (which was generally not present with the 220V line, but that one cost more) most people stuck with burning stuff (wood or gas, mostly) for things like heating and cooking. So we never had a need for bigger electrical supplies.

So even nowadays, in 2021, 90% of people have a 3KW supply. And that's it. You go over that and it cuts you off, and then you need to run to where the power meter is to turn it back on.

Of course this is a problem these days, with electric cookers and EVs.

In case it's not clear how limiting this is: this is like having a 13A main fuse/breaker in your home. If it sounds horrible, that's because it is. You can get bigger supplies, but they cost more and even then the biggest single phase supply you can get is 10kw (43A)

You *can* go a bit higher with a 3 phase supply in your home, but even then, this is laughable compared to most other European countries. And that's without even mentioning the 100/200A services in North America!

I presume the situation will improve over time, but for now... this is the reality.

Also, the old 220V 3phase transformers... some of them are still in service today, actually! So in certain houses the wires you get in your home are both live at 127V in respect to earth.

That may not seem like a problem, but apparently some electric car chargers **really** hate that kind of supply and will outright refuse to work when connected to one. Fun!

Anyways, this is the story of the Italian electrical system! More or less. I've posted more info in this page on my site, if you're interested: samuele963.github.io/other/electric…

I'm constantly working on adding more stuff to it, since this is something that really interests me.

I'm also working on editing a video about the old plugs I have! It should be released this or next week.

If you'd like to fund my collection of old electrical stuff (there are so many things I'd love to talk about, but $$$) then check out my ko-fi page! ko-fi.com/samstech

UPDATE! I made a video about the old plugs pictured in this thread, and also all the other old plugs in my collection!
So, if you liked this sort of stuff make sure to check out that video!

https://twitter.com/tech963/status/1371832803940241415