At the early part of the 20th century, when electricians were wiring houses (knob and tube), the color of the electrical wire was only black. The power companies found that one side of the power feed (center tap on 220) to the house or building had to be grounded to prevent voltage buildup on the power lines. In order for the electricians to keep track of the grounded side (neutral) of the power feed they painted the grounded (neutral) wire white. Soon after the wire manufacturers started making both black and white wires so the electricians now could safely wire buildings without resorting to painting the ground wire white.
73 -- Dave Robertson KD1NA ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com