Thanks Ken, you're right. I was thinking that without current-sensing
abilities on the neutral side of the circuit that it might allow the full
available current, but of course a light bulb would just work as a light
bulb, drawing no more power than it was designed for! I feel a little dim
myself right now ;-(

Jack

"Ken Fowler" wrote in message
...

On 8-May-2004, "Jack Painter" wrote:

experiment) from keeping all of that available voltage (0v felt on
neutral)
as long as the current did not exceed 15a or whatever your breaker
allows.
Obviously a 100w light bulb shorted to ground would blow instantly,
before
the breaker could protect it..

Uhhhh, No! The most voltage from either wire of a 117 Volt household
circuit to any other wire or
to any made ground is 117 Volts. The light bulb would be quite happy to
glow at something up to its
normal brightness for as long as you wanted. Now if the grounded
conductor was somewhere out in a
field instead of being the local house ground, then the light bulb would
not receive the full 117
Volts, because of the resistance of the intervening earth, and would be
unhappily dim.