![]() ![]() ![]() So how come it doesn’t? Because even though dozens more standards are added every year in the relentless march toward harmonization and globalization, plugs are one of the stubborn holdouts. There are no laws to force compliance, just the power of the market and the common-sense fact that life is easier when your hair dryer plugs in everywhere on the globe. “Standards are all around us, but nobody sees them,” says Anke Varcin of the International Standards Organization, which coordinates the work of national institutions and works to increase public awareness of the 20,000 or so standards that harmonize everything from air-quality control through anticorrosion devices for underwater oil pipelines to the sweat resistance of a shirt. It’s why an American renting a Japanese-made car in Liechtenstein will see the same dashboard symbols as at home, and find batteries for his camera at a store in the Alps. An elaborate system of standards has seen to that. It’s no accident, for instance, that credit cards are the same size from Wilmington, Del., to Wellington, New Zealand. The humble screw, along with bolts, nails and all other types of fasteners, is subject to a mind-boggling 160 size and quality controls under an international system intended to make everyday life safer and simpler. GENEVA What’s in a screw? Well, there’s ISO 272, ISO 4757 and ISO 7721. ![]()
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