On Jan 9, 11:03*am, Charlie Self wrote:
On Jan 9, 10:50*am, dpb wrote:



Doug Miller wrote:
In article , dpb wrote:

Trying to imagine what would be so flagrantly wrong that could justify
such a recall but not be obvious enough it simply wouldn't have worked
in reality, anyway.

Here's an example of that, from my first house, discovered when I remodeled
the bathroom. Entire house was wired with BX. Medicine cabinet in bathroom had
fluorescent lights and an outlet for plugging in an electric razor. Lights
controlled by wall switch, outlet hot all the time. Only one 14-2 BX cable
entering the medicine cabinet -- it had been wired using the cable armor as
the neutral. Worked, but obviously hazardous.

What was the neutral of the cable used for?

But did the subject book show/recommend such an installation is the
question?

--

IIRC, BX cable used to not have a neutral. Two wires. *Some may have,
but I never saw it. A friend once told me that knob and tube wiring
was the safest ever, even though it never ran a neutral. I dunno, but
I worked with it once and it's an eerie experience in some ways.

The later stuff comes from poor research, using secondary, tertiary
and even further back sources as if they were original research. In
other words, one guy made the goof in '75, and all the others picked
it up from there.

That happens a lot.

Dr. Melik: This morning for breakfast he requested something called
"wheat germ, organic honey and tiger's milk."
Dr. Aragon: [chuckling] Oh, yes. Those are the charmed substances that
some years ago were thought to contain life-preserving properties.
Dr. Melik: You mean there was no deep fat? No steak or cream pies
or... hot fudge?
Dr. Aragon: Those were thought to be unhealthy... precisely the
opposite of what we now know to be true.
Dr. Melik: Incredible.

- from Woody Allen's movie, Sleeper

R