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#1
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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...) |
#2
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So were a lot of old 6 volt American cars prior to about 1955.
Mack |
#3
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M. MacDonald wrote:
> So were a lot of old 6 volt American cars prior to about 1955. > > Mack Interesting. And do you know WHY that was done? |
#4
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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. |
#5
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"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. |
#6
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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. |
#7
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"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. |
#8
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#10
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"Hugo Schmeisser" > wrote in message ... > 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? Because the British didn't know better. |
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