Defined in these books the term NEUTRAL can be found and will that term be acceptable for today, or how did it change if so, wasn't that term really just a "nickname"

We shall see ...

the only real change is somebody who will make a name for themselves with another 6 code cycles of debate...

Joe:
"It's tough to teach an old dog new tricks (terms)"!!

Light fixtures are luminaires. If I used that term a few years back, some clients would assume that the job was going to be VERY expensive.

The white wire is the neutral. It's also the grounded conductor. What's the difference??? I know, it's in the "bible", I'll change my ways, and try to change my employees. (And remember to use the "correct" term in my CE classes)

John

I found the same problem with 'ground' and 'bond'.
I call them all 'grounds', and recieve little argument.

What is the definition of neutral according to these old texts?

pauluk:

I will look when I get homw on Friday, and will post that information here.

Neutral or Grounded conductor means the same thing to me.
Has the Neutral always been required, by the NEC, to be tied to the GEC via the main bonding jumper, at the service?

In a two wire installation, one wire black and the other wire white, with the black being energized, live or whatever the wire carrying current to the load is called, the white wire is not the neutral conductor.
It is called the grounded conductor.
If you were to read the instructions for a GFCI, you will see that the instructions do not say to install the neutral conductor to the 'white' screw, but the instructions will say to install the 'white wire' to the white screw. This type of instruction is common to a lot of other equipment we install.

Pierre

Having two terms with very similar names can lead to confusion. "Grounded conductor", "grounding conductor", "equipment ground" and such can be easily confused in conversations held in noisy enviroments. Like construction sites where wiring is being done. "Neutral" and "ground" are distinctly different words, and should reduce confusion. Other things in the code are done to cut confusion, like color codes (white wire is the neutral). These have no effect on the electrons running down the wires, but the people who work on such benefit from clear terms and labeling.

In my opinion it is a term that need not be defined. The way I view is that "neutral" is a state of being for the grounded conductor.

Here's what I mean, found in an old book was this information about a "neutral" ...

Joe, There's a very similar definition in a book I've got, "Elements of Electrical Engineering" It was published in 1924.
Sounds like the same old thing to me....S

Interesting reading. Does this book have anything to say on the subject of grounding the neutral?

In fact, back in 1905, were many 3-w DC systems floating?

Paul,

It is interesting, isn't it? In 1905 Nicola Tesla's breakthrough AC motor technology was under patent protection. Polyphase theory was still spreading as the individual technician/engineer tried to wrap his head around AC created rotary magnetic fields.

The primary use for electric energy was powering lights and motors, and generators had to by very close to their loads.

This book, while delving deeply into AC motors and generators, spends a lot of print on the installed base of machinery that had accrued over the previous forty years, and it is heavily DC. The term "neutral" has its roots back in these mists, obviously emenating from Edison's 1883 patent of the Three Wire System. This book shows many strange (by today's thinking) distribution schemes that offered incremental performance improvements of an inherently geographically limited system. One huge impediment to commercial viability was, simply, the cost of the copper.

In 1905 With respect to grounding, the Electricians' Handy Book illustrates a couple ground indicators used to alarm if any "circuit wires" are grounded. Elsewhere in the text: