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G'day all, Well, I tried to fly this one on info.com and it had very few responses, except for ones which made me feel bad. Some persons felt that I was having a go at the US for having 6V. This is not true and there were sound economic reasons for US manufacturers such as Packard using 6V for their electrical systems. I have always been curious why the US went for 6 volt and Europe for 12 Volt. Dodge and Maxwell, among others in the US were 12 volt in around 1919 and went to 6 volt in the Twenties. There were some real debates about the reasons to consider 12v and it was definitely not for the saving of the copper with smaller wires. I have chased up some additional info as to why 6v and 12v was popular in Europe and why 12V eventually prevailed. Australia was fairly split with voltage and catered for 6 and 12 v. It wasn't until the late forties, early 50's that most Australian vehicles changed over to 12v, mainly because the Australian market started to sell around 300,000 cars per year , ( up to 500,000 per year in the early Sixties) and it could make decisions independent of the US and UK. for example, cars such as the Ford Zephyr and Consul were made 12V in Australia in the late Forties, Australian Chrysler products such as the Chrysler Royal were 12V in 1951. I shall provide some more detail and it isn't all good news about the change to 12v. Peter Toet

Peter,

I followed this "debate" on Packardinfo and unfortunately there was a fair amount of belligerence displayed by some of the posters. Sorry I can't add anything one way or the other but look forward to some insightful background and comments on the matter by others much more knowledgeable than I.

Here is an interesting article from the SAE journals in 1954.

peter packard wrote:Here is an interesting article from the SAE journals in 1954.

Peter,

Unless I'm missing something I can't see the article referred to.

Sorry about that Mal, I tried a number of times and was unable to master the technique of posting jpegs onto this site. i have just started a new topic on how to do so. I have also just managed to get the article onto info.com. Peter

G'day all, especially Mal and Matthew, The two pages of the article are posted on the info.com thread on the 6V/12V discussion. They are well worth reading as they clearly indicate that copper saving had almost nothing to do with the US going over to 12V and that there were and are significant advantages to running 6V systems. The pages have to be "saved as" into your computer, then you may enlarge them to read them. The article was NOT the answer to why the US went for 6V and Europe went for 12 v. I shall put some very interesting facts to this forum shortly. Best regards Peter

Hi all, I have done a reasonable amount of research and it appears that around 1908 there were two sizes of accumulators ( batteries ) available, 4 Volt and 6 volt. A vehicle used to have two batteries and switched between them when one was discharged. The vehicle did not have a generator and re-charging had to be done at home. In Europe, 1907- 08, Osram introduced the first production automotive lights requiring 8, 10 or 14 volts . These were plugged into a switchboard arrangement and were seen as vastly superior to the acetylene lights of the time. This was particularly important in Europe which had a larger number of roads suitable for motor vehicles than America at the time. America used the 4 and 6 Volt batteries but there appeared to be not as much demand for the lights at the time.
With two 6 Volt batteries it was possible to have a spare ignition battery and still be able to use the 12 Volts of both for lighting.
Within a few years generators had been developed for Autos and it became unnecessary to carry two batteries. Europe still had more 12 V lighting and was moving towards magneto ignition rather than coil. When Europe went back to coil they went towards the Osram 12 V lighting. By then America ( Mazda etc) had developed 6V lighting systems and stayed with 6 V for both coil ignition and lighting.
There were a few exceptions in the US and Dodge, Maxwell and a few others started at 12V ( late Teens) and later changed to 6V.
I am sure that there are a few of my facts that are a bit wonky , but I do not have any books prior to 1907. I am sure that there would be some more knowledgeable people aroun on this subject. I would be pleased to hear more on the subject. Best regards Peter Toet