On Thu, 14 Nov 2013 21:40:25 -0500, Stormin Mormon wrote:

Two hots, and a ground. No neutral wire.

I may well be out of my league, but, I've wired 220 in
the past, and, well, *I* used two black and one white
(i.e., two hots and a neutral), and it worked, for me.

My problem at that time was that the wiring was in an
old house with screw-in fuses, so, that arrangement
above would tend to blow one fuse but not the other,
which wasn't really a good idea.

I could tell a fuse had blown 'cuz the motor would
hum instead of move for the compressor. But, when I
replaced the fuse, it would work again.

Dumb. Yes. I agree. Darwin award even? Perhaps.
But, clearly, *my* 220 in that case was two hots and
a neutral.

I supposed had I two hots and a ground wire tied to
the cold water pipe, it would have worked as well.

And, I must note, that I've *followed* the neutral
wire, in the olden days, when wires were above ground,
from the house, to the pole, to the next pole, to the
next (as far as I could tell anyway), until it went
straight into the ground.

Of course, I really didn't follow the wire directly,
but, I surmised the neutral went into the ground at
every third pole. At least that's what I remember
surmising way back when ...

So, *both* a ground and a neutral go into the ground.
The only difference, as I see it, is that the neutral
goes into the ground hundreds of feet away, and it
carries current; while the ground goes into the ground
at the edge of the house, and, it's not carrying current
(unless there is a fault).

So, given all that, I think we're talking semantics here.

I have two hots and this "thing" which goes into the
ground a few hundred yards from the house.

Apparently this "thing" is acting both as a ground, and
as a neutral. I'm going to check that this "thing" is
actually *connected* to the steel case of the dryer and
report back!

Thanks!