Ever traveled abroad and run into the dilemma of a drained cell phone, camera or laptop? Perhaps you reached into your bag and pulled out a power cord only to find that the wall outlet you were desperately trying to plug your charger into was shaped completely different than the charger you have clenched in your hands.
Seriously next time you find yourself on an international flight try it out. The adapter you pick up in Los Angeles probably won't work on your layover in Japan. Subsequently, the charger you had to buy in Japan certainly won't work at your final destination in Sydney Australia. You goof! Didn't you know you had to buy a couple of obnoxiously large power converters for this trip?
So you might be wondering, how did the world become this massive cesspool of power plugs? The answer isn't as complicated as it might seem. Way back when in the 1800's Thomas Edison stumbled across something quite miraculous. He managed to harness electrical currents in such a way to make them usable by the everyday man. Edison's power currents used a type of technology known as direct current or DC. Meanwhile, another man, one Nikola Tesla further refined this process and zeroed in on a way to transmit electrical currents across greater distances using alternating currents or AC technology. By the time Tesla's AC version (operating at 240v) was becoming increasingly popular, Edison's DC (110v) version was already in wide use in the United States.
Once news of these two voltage types began reaching the ears of citizens across the world, scientist and technologist began jumping at the chance to make their country's own 110v or 240v versions. What came of this was a two prong, three prong, slanted, not slanted, wide spaced, short spaced, long prong, short prong smorgasbord of combinations.
Seeing this explosion of power socket varieties, the International Trade Association put their creative heads together and came up with some truly innovative names for the many sockets around the world that have become widely used today.
Since America enjoys being number one at everything the varieties that exist stateside, in Canada and most parts of Mexico are aptly named versions A and B (for grounded and ungrounded). The C, E and F pedigrees all have the same look (to long rounded prongs that attach to a circular base) but have different voltages. These versions are commonly used in Russia , parts of Africa, India and Korea. Type G, one of the most unique looking versions has three wide spaced flat prongs attached to a large hexagonal base. G sockets and plugs get most of their use in Southeast Asia as well as small regions of Africa. H type sockets consist of three flat prongs, situated diagonally on the base. The least common amongst its peers, it is only used in small parts of the Middle East. I type sockets are the Australians version and resemble the H variety but have prongs angled in the opposite direction (the effect almost resembles a sad face emoticon). J, K and L versions are generally used in Japan and many regions of Iceland and Greenland. The prongs on these versions are housed in a rectangular base and for the most part, have prongs (both two and three) that are situated extremely close together.