The original ethernet cable was canonically '1968 Corvette yellow' to distinguish it from a power cable—because you literally had to drill into it to install it
Accidental electrocutions were on the mind back in the 1980s.
In the early days of ethernet cable design, the cables were predominantly yellow, a hue chosen for two significant reasons. Rich Seifert, one of the ethernet specification's creators, was fond of the color, noting that he owned a yellow car and possessed yellow furniture. This preference led him to select a bright yellow for the cables, which he showcased during a presentation at the Vintage Computer Festival.
The cables were part of "1968 Corvette yellow," a shade more commonly referred to as "Safari yellow" by car enthusiasts.
The second reason for the yellow color stemmed from the installation process at the time. Ethernet initially utilized a much larger coaxial cable, which required physical connection using a vampire tap that literally drilled into the metal cable through its rubber shielding. This process posed a risk of accidentally connecting to a power cable, which could have been hazardous.
Seifert aimed to prevent such mistakes by ensuring that the ethernet cable could be easily distinguished from the power cable. He wanted to make the ethernet cable as bright as possible to avoid any inadvertent drilling into a power cable. The presentation, while not available online, contains similar information in an older version of Seifert's talk.
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