RADIOS OLDEST MYTH
The Polarity DILEMMA

A very long time ago someone, (Perhaps it was Benjamin Franklin) said, "Lightning strikes the earth." Now we say that the strike is from the earth, to the clouds. We say that the Sun rises and sets. It doesn't. And we know it! When we say that It is raining, we mean that rain is falling from the sky. When we say D.C. is flowing from plus (+) to minus (—) we are wrong, and we know it! This is one of the best-kept secrets: "current isn't flowing from + to —: There is an electron flow from minus, where there is an abundance of negative electrons to the plus where there is a scarcity of electrons. Here is a near quote from a lesson printed by First National Television's radio study course in 1936: *

While you were studying electricity, we said that current always flows from positive to negative. This is called a convention. It is something taken for granted in the early study of electricity and, while there is no definite proof that the current does flow from positive to negative, we continue to take it for granted. We told you that the electron was electricity itself and we do have definite proof that the electrons flow toward the positive pole. So, we now say that electrons flow from negative to positive.

Someday, perhaps, all of our textbooks will be rewritten. We will discard the old idea of current flowing and consider only the action of electrons, but until this does happen, you must be very careful not to get the two mixed. Current flows from positive to negative, and electrons from negative to positive. To keep it more clear we like to consider the electron as the current carrier." Their study was proper but their prediction was wrong! The textbooks were rewritten. The electron theory was eliminated. Franklin's idea has become Convention. Within twelve years, transistors began replacing electron tubes and the need of the electron theory.

The whole World marks their batteries and battery circuits with the terminals reversed! Each plus should be a minus. Each minus should be a plus! More than 65,000,000 cell phone batteries are in service. Each miss-marked in the same way. This is also true of all the laptops and hand held devices. Include the diodes and electrolytic capacitors in radio receivers.

The valence of elements helps to determine their conductivity or lack of it. Valence also has a part in the readiness for motion of negative electrons to some + part of the circuit.

Aside from Radio, we think of + as being more and — as being less. This paradox results from the moving element being a negative bit of the molecule that more or less balances its nucleus. (The more electrons, the more negative the terminal becomes.) (The fewer electrons available; the more positive the terminal becomes.)

This generation chooses to teach its children the old way. This, rather than to abandon an ancient, unproved, theory of a current that does not exist! In the year 2002, Convention has chosen to continue with Benjamin Franklin's error. We pretend that the Polarity MYTH is true. If we all agree, it doesn't make any difference!

*The electron theory helped explain the Edison effect, a giant leap toward RADIO.