Spindle dimensions & tapers

I was just looking through a catalogue with some machinery bits in and wonder how so many different types of tapers have come about and are in use? I can only think of R8, Morse and NT but I'm sure there's more. Who made these standards? And how come there's so many 'standards'? Does one design not have some sort of major mechanical benefit over the over? I've not seen many mills that use Morse tapers for their tooling, only drill presses.

Regards,
John


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