The acceptance, within N. America of IEC 79/0-19 (Cenelec 50 014 039) and the potential global impact in hazardous area electrical engineering

Prior to the establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC) each member state had its own individual standards covering electrical and control engineering in hazardous areas. With the advent of the EEC with its remit that there had to be free trading between all member states, it was necessary to align the individual country or state standards and various committees were established to fulfil this requirement, one being Cenelec (Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation). Such a standardisation concept had existed since 1904-the idea of an English electrical engineer Colonel REB Crompton. He arranged a meeting of the electrical manufacturers of all the major nations and this took place in 1904-at the St. Louis International Congress, and a "Corresponding Committee" was formed. After some international "correspondence" the International Electrotechnical Commission was established on June 26/sup th/ 1906, after which each country went its own way until the advent of the EEC. Some 60 years later, it therefore appeared to be a logical choice to harmonise the emerging European standards with those of the IEC and, by doing so, create standards acceptable to the USA and Canada. In the dissertation which follows, only the relevant IEC document No's have been quoted-their equivalents in Cenelec, NEC are given in the bibliography.