I saw this on the shelf at Big Orange today. It took me a moment until I realized what was so disturbing. I thought that maybe this was a weird exception that had caught my eye, but a search of a couple book sites on line yields the same results.

Seems that the "Art" of the cover is more important than what the art portrays.

Al

Did they SPRAY PAINT it?!!

Hello Al, I have heard from some trade people that that Black and Decker book (excluding the cover) is one of the better DIYer books.

Roger

Hmm... not only are all them thar wires BLUE ("Excuse me, I need to purchase some 12/4 WG with all blue wires just like it shows here!") but they also show a tip-off of DIY'ers by encouraging the installation of receptacles ground-prong-up

I remember taking a "Basic Electricity" night-school course way back in high school and the instructor pointed out that, if you saw ground-prong-up receptacles, it was a fairly sure bet that it was done by a DIY'er.

Uh-oh... did I start sumthin' I shouldn't have...

At last. I've always thought that all wires, including grounds, should be blue. I'ts about time. You white = neutral guys are so retro.

The first thing that caught my eye was that the ground wire is wrapped counter clockwise.

If you look carefully at the slots on that plug, it looks like the image is reversed. Normally, if ground down, the neutral is on the left, and hot is right. Thus the plug's ground is done correctly (if you look at this image thru a mirror...)

Ah-ha! I've got it!

That image was supposed to be printed on the BACK cover- that would've fixed the image reversal!

The image was evidently mirrored top to bottom. Thus the reversed prongs, the CCW screw wrap, and the upside-down positioning of the receptacle.

...I agree, the ground terminal is always on the neutral terminal's side..

Well, the blue neutral would at least satisfy one-out-of-three color code requirements of European wiring!

No pretwisting with that orange wire nut either. They could at least use a tan twister wire nut or something.

I hope the both has a disclaimer "You can't learn proper connections from a book, poor connections may cause your house to burn and your family to die. Consult a qualified electrician if you value your family."