Re: Another Experience with odd effects.

perelman ( perelman@ix.netcom.com )
Tue, 29 Dec 98 16:42:54 -0700

>The effects you describe have been observed by me.
>Not the measurement oddity though which set me thinking.
>First the standing voltage. This is why in New Zealand we have a 3 wire
>system.
>Phase, neutral and a seperate earth. In Holland we do not have a seperate
>earth. They regard neutral as safe and cannot recall anyone having been
>killed by it.
>The measurement oddity is most interesting. This means that we are not
>dealing with a pure A.C. This appears to be a directional A.C or may be
>pulsed D.C. or a mixture of both. I recall having seen some oscilloscope
>pattern of a spike followed by a very faint trace as flat as a pancake.
>Never owned one though as in my radio days you flew by the seat of your
>pants.

Bill Beatty has a very good explanation of the evolution of AC sockets -
neutral is grounded, ground is basically there to provide a
'non-shocking' neutral.. it's interesting, I reccommend reading it. Not
sure if it'll help with the effect you refer to, but thought it might..

It's at
http://www.eskimo.com/~billb/amateur/whygnd.txt

hope this helps somehow!