The electrons do flow through the ground, but not all the way back to the generating station through the ground. Each telephone pole transformer has it's own ground wire that goes down the pole from the transformer and is wrapped around the bottom of the telephone pole under the ground. So, the electrons only flow from the grounding rod or grounded plumbing pipe outside your house to the nearest telephone pole with a distribution transformer. Thereafter they travel along copper wires back to the generating station.
Quote:
Notice the 7200V primary side of the transformer didn't look
grounded in the picture (but it must have been). Right?
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Right.
In this diagram:
http://tinyurl.com/ly24tjo
...the primary coil in the distribution transformer is shown as being connected between the 7200 volt cable and ground. That little dohickey that looks like a three pronged rake is the electrical symbol for "Ground".
At least, this is how I understand things, and so far I haven't electocuted myself.
Hope this helps.