ibw0trr t1_iykey35 wrote on December 2, 2022 at 1:21 AM

Reply to comment by Doggydog123579 in TIL that the southern United States converted all 11,500+ miles of its railroads from broad gauge (5 ft/1.524 m) to nearly-standard gauge (4 ft 9 in/1.448 m) in just 36 hours, starting on May 31, 1886 by 1859

I had never heard of this until tech connections did a bit on outlets.

Ring circuits seem like a great idea... Until one end gets broken and the other has to support the full potential amperage.

nivlark t1_iylltpr wrote on December 2, 2022 at 8:14 AM

They were always just an efficiency measure. Ring mains let you use less copper, which was in short supply in the UK during the post-war years when a lot of housing was being built to replace what had been lost to bombing.