The 3x230V nomenclature is a peculiar (from our perspective) way of specifying that the supply is 3-wire, no neutral provided, with 230V between phases. In other words, it's a 127/220 wye (or 133/230 I suppose, nowadays) system, grounded on the star point but without a neutral distributed to each house. Some parts of Europe did use 127/220 4-wire in the past with 127V appliances.
Yes, TT has a solidly grounded neutral at the supply transformer. But the grounding busbar (and thus the EGCs to the circuits) are grounded only to a local rod. They are not bonded to the neutral in any way, so the sole ground-fault current path is the earth.
John,
I think you're referring to Nikola Tesla, who did a lot of development work on AC machines. He often seems to be the "forgotten pioneer" in some electrical histories.
