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"...my electric company has switched from 60Hz to 40Hz"

You do have a battery powered BS meter don't you?

Yeah, they won't do that, although they did relax the line frequency standards a little bit in the last year or two. I think we will be at 60 cycles for the foreseeable future.

I know in the past, there were systems that used 40 cycles, such as around the dam in Mechanicsburg, NY that was built in 1895 or so and still in use today (with frequency convertors). Some place even had 25 cycle power too such as Buffalo NY and a huge part of Ontario, Canada until they went 60 cycles in the 1950's. My grandmother had a sweeper from the 1930's (my aunt sill has it I think) that she used up until her death in 1997 that was rated 25 to 60 cycles.