It's the other way round.  Charles Proteus Steinmetz did a lot of work with
AC current.  DC is more conducive to electrocution (no pun intended.)

Kind regards,

Denys. . .

Denys Beauchemin
HICOMP America, Inc.
(800) 323-8863  (281) 288-7438         Fax: (281) 355-6879
[log in to unmask]                             www.hicomp.com



-----Original Message-----
From:   Roy Buzdor [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Wednesday, November 26, 1997 3:45 PM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Re: Programmers

Actually it has been corrupted from a true story.  It had
nothing to do with programming.  An electrical genius named
Steinmetz designed all of the electrical systems at the
Ford plant in Michigan.  Unfortunately, Steinmetz did not
believe in AC power - it was too easy to kill someone via
electrocution - so the plant was wired as DC.  When something
broke, Ford asked Steinmetz to fix it, Steinmetz said for a
price, he would.  Ford was furious (and cheap), so he asked
that well known genius, Thomas Edison, to look at it.  It was
beyond Edison's comprehension, so finally Ford had to go back
to Steinmetz.  Steinmetz fixed it in 30 minutes, and submitted
a bill for $10,000 (this was in the 1930s when $10,000 was a
LOT of money).  Ford said that he would not pay $10,000 for
30 minutes worth of "fiddling", and that Steinmetz should
submit a more reasonable bill.  Steinmetz submitted the
following:

        30 minutes of fiddling -   $100.00
        knowing where to fiddle - $9900.00
                                ----------
        total bill               $10000.00

at which time Ford succumbed and paid the bill.

--

Buz         (:

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