Quoting asimovd@aol.com:

[...] In any case, another source of confusion is the way faucet hardware from English-speaking countries is used in Spanish-speaking countries. The H doesn't make sense, but the C obviously stands for "calor". Thus, in Mexico one often finds the C & H used to mean exactly the reverse of their meanings in English.

1) Well, don't forget Italy, and presumably also Spain, Portugal, and the rest. I found this out once on a train trip to Rome, but my friend later reminded me of my (long forgotten and never learned} Latin that "caldo" ends up in English as "scald." 2) In Mexico, there are worse problems than mixing H's and C's. For example, somewhere along the line, those estimable protectors of the innocent from their foolishment decreed that electrical equipment must have a physical ground. But there were already two polarities, whose ambiguous usage was the proximate cause of the problem. There are six permutations of three contacts, and electrical wiring here is done by touching a pair of wires to see if you get a spark! This has been a source of endless diversion some equipment casualties, and obligatory rewiring of new installations. 3) Then, there is a polarity problem. Should the hot water faucet, whatever its label or color, sit on the right? Well, that, too, is sort of a random process. 4) And going back to basic engineering, should turning the valve close the water flow from inside out or from outside in. If done the bad way, the hot valve stem shrinks as it cools now that the flow has stopped, thereby opening the orfice and leaving a drip which may require several cycles of iteration to stop. That is, if you are fastidious and even interested. - hvm 3) ------------------------------------------------- Obtén tu correo en www.correo.unam.mx UNAMonos Comunicándonos