I’m rewiring a lamp and didn’t make sure that the silver and copper wires in the cord matched the screws on the bulb socket. What will happen if I got it wrong? – L
The bulb will operate perfectly well, regardless of which way you connected the lamp’s two wires. Current will still flow in through one wire, pass through the bulb’s filament, and return to the power company through the other wire. The only shortcoming of reversing the connections is that you will end up with the “hot” wire connected to the outside of the socket and bulb, rather than to the central pin of the socket and bulb. That’s a slight safety issue: if you touch the hot wire with one hand and a copper pipe with the other, you’ll get a shock. That’s because a large voltage difference generally exists between the hot wire and the earth itself.
In contrast, there should be very little voltage difference between the other wire (known as “neutral”) and the earth. In a properly wired lamp, the large spade on the electric plug (the neutral wire) should connect to the outside of the bulb socket. That way, when you accidentally touch the bulb’s base as you screw it in or out, you’ll only be connecting your hand to the neutral wire and won’t receive a shock. If you miswire the lamp and have the hot wire connected to the outside of the socket, you can get a shock if you accidentally touch the bulb base at any time.