I have an old craftsman Powr Panl (yes spelled that way) and it has an extension cord on it that has 10 individual wires on the inside. There are 5 dull white ones, and then five that are: bright white, red, black, green, and brown. Any ideas? This is the original cord, and was hooked up in 1950 at one point. Any ideas?
Standard colors for power cords these days are white (for neutral/return), black (for 'hot' - think bad guys in black hats, it's the wire that will zap you if holding onto the kitchen faucet when live and you touch it), and green (for ground). Note that the white wire is the return path that carries current while the green is usually connected to the case or chassis and should trip the circuit breaker if it begins to carry current. A guess? The name Powr Panl suggests that this is a power distribution panel with multiple outlets. It's possible the color coding was used to help track connections to ganged panels. Just a guess though. With perhaps more detail, a better informed guess could be made. What does the panel look like? How large are the wires? To what do they connect? Feel free to email for follow-up.
