On Wed, 14 May 2008 08:15:37 -0700, Mikepier wrote:

Sounds like you have a short between the black and copper wire. You
can cheat by twisting the copper and black wires together at each end,
then using that twisted pair and the white wire for 110V. the only
problem is now you don't have a ground going out to the light pole.
One way to get around that is to put a GFI switch/outlet combo where
the switch is, or perhaps a GFI breaker for the whole circuit.

Ouch, thats not the only problem. Now the white wire would be hot. I
feel sorry for the next guy to work on that lamp.