In article , DJ Delorie wrote:

Duane Bozarth writes:
(That is, the two legs of 240V are generated from a single phase
supply.)

To make it more amusing, we had a tree fall take out the "ground" wire
coming to our house, leaving only the Earth ground as a return. We
have 7200v service (transformer at the house), so this left us with a
single wire coming up the driveway. Power inside the house seemed
normal to me, although we weren't using very much of it at the time.

If anyone knows how to get more than one phase out of a single wire
(plus return), there's a Nobel prize waiting for you.

No there isn't. It's *been*done*. many times, many ways. google
for "quatrature amplitude modulation", for a _relatively_ easy-to-understand
example.