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Wire To Which Post?

Given: Household desk lamp socket replacement project. Socket has one gold and one silver screw to hold each of the wires that come from the cord. The cord has one coated side bearing labels every few inches while the other coated wire of the cord is free of any printing. Both are the same color with no other distinguishable characteristics.

Question: I believe these markers come into play for polarity or something close that I never did fully understand ... which would be awfully nice to learn here if someone cared to take the time to give me a thumbnail explanation.

Which color screw should the wire bearing the printion connect to?

Reply to
jaygreg
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The wire with the markings is the neutral. Connect it to the the silver screw.

Reply to
Terry

Also make sure that wire with markings is attached to the terminal on the plug that is for the "wide" prong. This may also be a silver screw.

This insures that the "shell" of the lamp socket is on the neutral. If the plug has two equal prongs, it will fit the outlet either way, and the purpose of the polarity connection is lost. The purpose is to avoid having the shell, which is easily touched when changing bulbs, being at the "hot" wire potential. The neutral is grounded at the service entrance.

This all assumes the outlets are correctly wired.

Reply to
VWWall

Thanks men. I appreciate the explpanation. Light is fixed... and I'm still here to tell about it! Thanks.

Reply to
jaygreg

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