Fuse wire (was Question About Harry's Gift To Mr. Weasley)

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Tonks" <tonks_op at ...> wrote:
>
> --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Geoff Bannister" 
> <gbannister10@> wrote:
> > Geoff:
> > Well, in the days before miniature circuit-breakers were the norm, 
> > every sensible household had a collection of various thicknesses 
> of 
> > fuse wire stowed in a drawer somewhere to be searched for when a 
> > fuse blew.
 
> Tonks:
 
> OK, I think we are about the same age, but you are in England. I 
> remember fuses. You took the old one out and screwed in a new one. 
> IF I remember right, you could tell when the old one was blown 
> because a little metal thingy in it was melted and pulled apart. I 
> don't remember any need for wire. What sort of fuse box did the 
> English have? Wire sounds kind of scary to me. Something that only 
> electricians would use. How would one use wire?????

Geoff:
I mentioned miniature circuit-breakers but the previous 
step forward was the use of cartridge fuses which are still 
frequently fitted in plugs and are the little cylindrical thingies 
which are about an inch or so in length and about 1/4 inch in 
diameter. These made life a lot easier.

Fuse wire belongs to the old fuse box era. The UK system 
was as follows. A fuse box was usually a metal box mounted 
somewhere on a wall with a series of sockets in it. A fuse was 
basically a porcelain block about 2 inches long and perhaps 
1/2 square in section. There were two metal prongs about an 
inch long 1/2 inch wide and maybe 1/8 inch thick protruding 
near each end. These were pushed into the sockets to complete 
the circuit and a piece of the relevant strength fuse wire was 
fixed across the connections. If there was a short-circuit or 
an overload, the wire melted and broke and had to be replaced.

Or course there were a couple of corollaries to Murphy's Law 
which accompanied fusebox technology. The first was that 
they were so positioned that, when access was needed, piles 
of household equipment had to be moved or you had to possess 
two foot long thin fingers and they were also placed so that you
would invariably hit your head while trying to reach them.

The second was that a lighting fuse would always blow on a 
November evening and you had to remember where you kept 
the torches for such an emergency and then blunder through 
the house, barking your shins and falling over the cat while 
seeking the said torch.