Rich256 wrote:
stars1234 wrote:

Deleted some of the history.

....

Arcs should not happen under any condition. The presence of an arc has
no relationship as to which line is hot. That is unless you are
shorting a ground to the wires.

Could be charging blocking cap and is causing some. Or perhaps the
reversing polarity is discharging a cap when into the neutral which is
at ground.

....
3) I tested a three prong, polarized, grounded (but not really), duplex
socket with my VOM (battery powered) for voltage. I pushed one probe
into the short slot, the other into the long (left) slot.

When I put the probe into the left slot-Pow! A nice, blue arc from
the tip of it into the slot.

Not a good test. You should not be drawing any current to speak of
through your meter. That is unless you have it on a current measurement
setting. Then I would expect you would blow something.
....

This time, when I put the probe into the left slot there was a big
flash. My VOM went dead-is dead-- and so is the wall outlet. Now,
I have to go by a new VOM, new wall socket. Funny that the fuse
didn't blow in the VOM nor did a circuit breaker trip.

Are you sure it didn't blow the VOM fuse? Normally they would only be
a fraction of an amp. I'd double check it.

My bet is w/ the likelihood you were either on a continuity or current
or input range by accident.

Except for the floating ground introduced w/ the use of a grounding
outlet w/ a two-wire service, there really isn't anything so
bad-sounding on the house here except it sounds like there might be
crossed neutrals and hots if the receptacles weren't installed
correctly (or at least consistently). I'd do a certainty check on that
for all of them and I'd do it visually rather than relying on an
inexpensive tester -- I've seen cases where some weren't terribly
reliable.