Belgian,
Presumably all houses wired this way use the TT earthing system?
On the 50 vs. 60Hz question, there is a minor advantage in that with 60Hz the transformers can be a little lighter for any given loading. 50Hz
was used in some parts of America in the past. Bjarney posted a link some time ago to an article about the 1930s conversion of the Los Angeles area from 50 to 60Hz. Can you remember that link, Scott?
However, both 110 & 220V will do a very nice job of killing you. (Bare in mind that early electric chairs operated at 110V!!! albeit DC)
True, 110 and 220V can both be deadly, but the first electric chair used a lot more than 110V and most certainly wasn't DC.
I've seen values of around 1500 to 1700V quoted for the first use of the chair in 1890. Thomas Edison played a large part in getting the State of New York to adopt the chair, and he was firmly of the opinion that DC was far safer than AC (how much his belief was colored by rivalry with George Westinghouse is very much open to debate).
Some people have gone so far as to suggest that Edison's insistence on the use of AC for electrocution was an attempt to create a distrust of AC in the minds of the public ("Look, they're using AC to execute criminals, so it can't be safe to have in our home.")
