[Elecraft] Why black is the hot wire

[David Robertson]

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
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Re: [Elecraft] Why black is the hot wire

[Matthew Cook]

Yes this makes wiring 220V US equipment in foreign countries like VK even
more exciting, since we're the other way round...  Black is Neutral.

73

Matthew
 VK5ZM

On 18 September 2015 at 02:41, David Robertson  wrote:

> 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 vk...@bistre.net
>
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