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A comment on Why didn't electricity immediately change manufacturing?. Parent comment

Re:Why didn't electricity immediately change manufacturing? by aphextron on Monday August 21, 2017 @01:10PM (#15065978)
A lot of it had to with the efficiency of DC motors as well. Electrification of heavy industry never took place until the introduction of 3-phase AC motors which were able to provide the sufficient horsepower.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induction_motor

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Re:Why didn't electricity immediately change manufacturing? by Animats on Monday August 21, 2017 @02:07PM (#15066381)
No, steel mill drives in both AC and DC were used.[1] They each have their advantages. Speed control in the early days took additional rotating electrical machinery. Huge rotating machinery.

Diesel-electric locomotives mostly used DC motors in the 20th century. 3-phase AC synchronous motors with elaborate semiconductor control systems are now used in most new locomotives, but that's only in the last 20 years.[2] There are still thousands of DC-motor locomotives running on US rails.

High-speed elevators were DC for most of the 20th century.

Speed control of DC motors was, for a long time, easier than speed control for AC motors. The reverse is now true, because power semiconductors are so good.

[1] https://books.google.com/books?id=-thQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA308 [2] http://www.republiclocomotive.com/ac-traction-vs-dc-traction...

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