Bob, to answer your question regarding rotation:
Regardless of rotation the neutral will be the center point, which would be tied to the house neutral, which is grounded. The ST stator windings are essentially a transformer secondary, so which way you spin the rotor (with 4 electromagnet poles) makes no difference.
Like a transformer secondary, you could tie the neutral to any other AC voltage you wanted, and the L1 and L2 would shift accordingly.
The 110/220 scheme as Edison's for DC power- got twice the power to the home with adding only 1 wire, with the safety of only 110V to earth. Later AC power just copied it for DC appliance compatibility. Edison quickly learned to not use the earth as a conductor (Brooklyn "Dodgers" was due to DC step potential and it's affect on horses) and did not ground the neutral except at the plant. Alas, the AC power companies starting around 1920 began the abomination of engineering known as MEN or multiply earthed neutral. It allowed the power co to use home water and gas pipes for grounding their distribution neutral which violates transformer isolation throughout the distribution system. It causes 100 times higher magnetic fields in homes and injects about a measured 25-33% of the neutral AC current to flow through the earth an aquifers.