s-g — §2112 of the 1953 NECH seems to have the same wording as your 1959 verbiage, though I believe that by the 1971 edition specific multiwire color coding had been reduced to an unenforceable “suggestion”/fine-print note. In the 1953 book, I can’t locate any mention of high-leg identification/position in [Article 215] feeders or [Article 384] switchboards.
One thing to keep in mind is that 4-wire-delta feeders and panels are somewhat a modern implementation {40 years?} in electrical systems. At one time, for “240V” building services, 120/240v 1ø 3w and 240V 3ø 3w may have been routinely served from the same utility-owned transformer bank, but were ‘split’ at one end of the service drop, and separately metered typcially with “lighting” and “power” meters (usually under separate rates.) Remember that the 1ø 3w circuit would be a multiwire circuit, but the 3ø 3w circuit would not, so may not have had mandatory phase/color coding or uniform bus positions.
Where 3ø 3-wire boards, panels or gutters serving grouped fusible switches installed by qualified persons, there should have been no 'fourth-wire' grounded-circuit conductor to deal with. There would have been little chance for someone to inadvertently {or intentionally} make an ill-advised high-leg-to-neutral tap or similar potentially hazardous circuit configuration.
It took development and utility acceptance of [self-contained and transformer-rated] 4-wire-delta metering for highlegs and neutrals to “mix” and result in the need for a corresponding code revision.
[This message has been edited by Bjarney (edited 12-30-2004).]
