Why were so many British cars positive earth?
 

I did some Googling and came up with nothing. Hard to believe no one
else has apparently ever asked this question. Or maybe I'm looking in
the wrong place.

Anybody know? (Besides "because they were British", that is...)

So were a lot of old 6 volt American cars prior to about 1955.

Mack

Hugo Schmeisser wrote:
> I did some Googling and came up with nothing. Hard to believe no one
> else has apparently ever asked this question. Or maybe I'm looking in
> the wrong place.
>
> Anybody know? (Besides "because they were British", that is...)

probably the same reason that Honda engines spin backwards.
Because that's the way they did it?

I'd like to know why the hot wire in car wiring is red and the ground
wire is black, but at home it's the black wire that's hot.

"Hugo Schmeisser" > wrote in message
...
>I did some Googling and came up with nothing. Hard to believe no one
> else has apparently ever asked this question. Or maybe I'm looking in
> the wrong place.
>
> Anybody know? (Besides "because they were British", that is...)

It actually makes more sense (to me) to have a positive ground since DC
current flows from negative to positive.

John Kunkel wrote:
> "Hugo Schmeisser" > wrote in message
> ...
> >I did some Googling and came up with nothing. Hard to believe no one
> > else has apparently ever asked this question. Or maybe I'm looking in
> > the wrong place.
> >
> > Anybody know? (Besides "because they were British", that is...)
>
> It actually makes more sense (to me) to have a positive ground since DC
> current flows from negative to positive.

Well, it's a story with a long history. The Brits were on a roll when
they declared Greenwich Mean Time as the time standard, so they also
declared that cars (when developed) would always have a positive
ground. Unfortunately the British Empire fell onto hard times and
their advice was ultimately ignored and we now have Universal
Coordinated Time and negative grounded cars.

"John Kunkel" > wrote in message
...

> > Anybody know? (Besides "because they were British", that is...)
>
> It actually makes more sense (to me) to have a positive ground since DC
> current flows from negative to positive.


No, actually it does not, John. DC flows from positive to negative, by
convention.
Electrons from from negative to positive, but electron flow is not defined
as current.

On Wed, 22 Jun 2005 10:27:18 -0700, John Kunkel > wrote:



>"Hugo Schmeisser" > wrote in message
...
>>I did some Googling and came up with nothing. Hard to believe no one
>> else has apparently ever asked this question. Or maybe I'm looking in
>> the wrong place.
>>
>> Anybody know? (Besides "because they were British", that is...)

>It actually makes more sense (to me) to have a positive ground since DC
>current flows from negative to positive.


DC flows in a circle. It makes absolutely no difference which side you use
as your reference.

On Wed, 22 Jun 2005 19:25:01 -0400, Ototin > wrote:


>On Wed, 22 Jun 2005 10:56:23 -0500, ray > wrote:

>>Hugo Schmeisser wrote:
>>> I did some Googling and came up with nothing. Hard to believe no one
>>> else has apparently ever asked this question. Or maybe I'm looking in
>>> the wrong place.
>>>
>>> Anybody know? (Besides "because they were British", that is...)
>>
>>probably the same reason that Honda engines spin backwards.
>>Because that's the way they did it?
>>
>>I'd like to know why the hot wire in car wiring is red and the ground
>>wire is black, but at home it's the black wire that's hot.

>In house wiring the red wire is also "hot".

Black is hot, IIRC.
White is neutral.

Red is only used for three plus ground as in wiring for a 3-way (three terminal
actually) switch.

y_p_w wrote:

> wrote:
> > "John Kunkel" > wrote in message
> > ...
> >
> > > > Anybody know? (Besides "because they were British", that is...)
> > >
> > > It actually makes more sense (to me) to have a positive ground
> > > since DC current flows from negative to positive.
> >
> >
> > No, actually it does not, John. DC flows from positive to negative,
> > by convention.
> > Electrons from from negative to positive, but electron flow is not
> > defined as current.
>
> Back in my days as an electrical engineering student, we referred to
> positive current as the movement of "holes", and negative current as
> the movement of electrons. Of course everything has to do with the
> mass movement of electrons, but the convention of "positive current"
> never changed.
>
> Electrons and holes are also used to describe semiconductor doping.



This is all very interesting, to be sure. But nobody has answered my
question of WHY?

Was the positive-earth setup the result of a flawed understanding of
electricity? Or was there some other reason to choose this layout?