Anybody recognize these???
Back in the day before ‘breakers’ these were what you had in your house…
They weren’t called FUSE boxes for nothing…LOL
And an ’emergency’ fuse was a real copper penny! As a high school kid, I helped a friend’s grandpa restore a couple of old houses, including rewiring them. We were pulling out CLOTH wrapped wire that dated from the early 20th century, and fuse boxes where you could literally see the burn marks inside the box from fuses arcing as they’d blown over the years…
I’m still amazed those houses hadn’t burned to the ground over the years…
Especially with ‘this’ wiring…
Creative Commons CC-BY-SA-3.0-migrated
Known as knob and tube, it consisted of ceramic knobs were cylindrical and generally nailed directly into the wall studs or joists. The knob was used to secure and anchor the wire, seperating the wire from potentially combustible framework, and ensured that wires were not subject to excessive tension. Because the wires were suspended in air, they could dissipate heat well.
Ceramic tubes were inserted into holes bored in wall studs or floor joists, and the wires were directed through them. This kept the wires from coming into contact with the wood framing members and from being compressed by the wood as the house settled.
OBTW, the ‘maximum’ safe current was no more than ten amps with knob and tube, and the wires were cloth wrapped in most cases…
Today, it’s not unusual to see 30 amp up to 50 amp circuits in homes…
One of the “fun” things with “knob and tube” wiring was that the “hot” and “neutral” wires of a given circuit didn’t always run together, nor were they labeled as such. Made life exciting working on light fixtures, etc. Romex with wire pairs and color coded wires was a literal lifesaver.
NRW@613:
Yeah, but… My last house had knob and tube and “real” 2x4s. No electrical problems. The house before that had “modern” wiring that had issues like reversed polarity outlets and switched neutrals. When I went to replace a big-ass cartridge fuse, a little voice said “STOP!”. Always listen to the little voice. The fuses were hot because the box was mounted upside down and wired backwards. Jeez.
I’ve got those fuses in my barn (and well pump box) but not the exposed wiring . Bet those exposed wiring might’ve cooked some birds , which would be a good thing for some of my bird problems . Except for the swallows , we have an agreement they come up from central america I am told , and they stay from May to Sept and eat bugs and wasps which is helpful , they unfortunately shit on everything , they are fun to watch , they are high speed aerodynamic acrobats . Fighter planes of the bird world.
I was doing some work in an old (now “historic”) military building about 25 years ago. The breakout panel on one floor was nails hammered into a board with the wires wrapped around them. The wires were wrapped in paper insulation. Browned, brittle, crumbling paper insulation.
I wasn’t really surprised when one wing of the building burned a couple years later.
Looks like it was before 2×4’s started shrinking too.
At least you could look at them at tell if they were burned out. I’ve had a rash of modern circuit breakers in my house that start popping for no reason. The first time I pulled one, put it on the work bench connected to nothing, set it, and watched it pop off all by itself was a revelation.
Knob and Tube is as safe as modern wiring, IF you only use the correct size of fuse (and not a penny)
There is no fire risk (at least not one greater than modern wiring (we won’t talk about the aluminum wiring of the 60’s and 70’s)
Just don’t go into the attic or wall and touch all the wires.
Seriously, there is no fire risk unless you use a bigger fuse.
As long as the circuit didn’t draw more than 10 amps…
Almost all the circuits in my house and farm are protected by fuses, not circuit breakers, ranging in size from 15 amp type S on most of the older wiring to 200 amp main fuses. We did pull all the knob and tube wiring in 1955, and replaced it with armored cable (commonly known as “BX” — and all new wiring is BX, which is much safer than the Romex used in lower quality modern wiring (mice can’t chew through the armor — they can and do chew through and short Romex type cable).
Fuses are as safe, or safer, than circuit breakers, with the only caution being to use the correct size fuse for the wiring. But that applies to circuit breakers as well — a quick trip to the big box and any homeowner can get a bigger breaker and swap it in on a circuit which keeps popping the breaker. Takes 10 minutes.
Bought a house in 2012 that was knob and tube in the attic. I took 7 or 8 fuse boxes off the wall and a 4 circuit breaker panel. The service entrance was cloth “romex”. A screw from the new roof had penetrated the hot and neutral on it and fried the screw. I finished rewiring that a few years later. The wiring was so random, I swear if you threw a breaker the lights went off in the living room and toilet wouldn’t flush.
Aluminum is great stuff.
With a pipe, you can in principle have a component that is carrying fluid, current or signal, and a structural load.
But the modern style of designing buildings is to use separate approaches so that future maintainers and inspectors know what is going on.
Architects practicing modern art spend most of their time on buildings that look strange on the outside, and very few are making artistic statements only to the actuaries and to the building maintenance people.
I remember a cousin’s house in very rural Arkansas that had wiring running outside the walls and along the ceiling after being upgraded from kerosene lamps. This was in the late 40’s.
My dad grew up in the hills above Oakland, CA. He reminisced about a Halloween prank from his childhood. Sorta like ringing a door bell and running away, this was sneaking around back and pulling a fuse so the house went dark. About the third time this happened to a neighbor a few houses away, the father had had enough. He went out back, broke up an empty wooden crate, and nailed up a few pieces to block access to the fuse box. It was then that he realized that in his haste, he had forgotten to put the fused back.
When we lived in southern Indiana for a few years, the guy across the street was building a large, modern A-frame house. He would go antiquing across the river into Louisville, KY, and fitted out every room with original pushbutton pair switches: two bakelite knobs with a silver paint dot on the “on” button. There’s a company in Portland, OR that makes modern replicas and also has the switch plates: https://www.rejuvenation.com/products/lewis-single-push-button-switchplate/
Anyways the electrical inspector just about ___ his pants “You did NOT run knob & tube, did you?!?” (No, it was all Romex.) Gorgeous house. It was a replacement for the previous one that was damaged by an April tornado. That’s another story.
Oh, post 1982 zinc core pennies are also *not* good as fuse substitutes.
Worse story about fuses: When Square-D outsourced production to China, whoever molded their housings ran ‘extra shifts’ and sold them internally in China to other companies that created counterfeits which still had the molded in ‘D’ logo, but the internals were just a spring-loaded switch that *felt the same* as a toggling a circuit breaker, but with no actual overload protection. Tens of thousands of these ended up in this country. Many are probably in service now, waiting to allow fires – somewhere.
https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2007/north-american-breaker-co-recalls-counterfeit-circuit-breakers-due-to-fire-hazard
I remember those. Still have a few in the misc parts box. Knob and tube? I worked on a house remodel project some years back, the owner had tied the old wiring into the Romex, not a good scenario.
My house still has a fuse box. It works.
While I’d like to get it replaced with breakers, extortionate doesn’t begin to describe what the electricians want to replace it.
My mom’s old house had the knob and tube wiring when she bought it and her first order of business was to triple the number of outlets and completely rewire the house.
The old wiring was abandoned in place. No insulation on it, bare, solid copper, wire. From 1919 to 1989, it served.
Sounds like the house I rented when I first moved to $HOOTERVILLE. The place still had a for-real FUSE box, with those fuses pictured. At least the original knob and tube wiring (I saw the attic…) had been replaced – abandoned in place.
I had a house in San Jose, built in 1936, mostly with knob and tube wiring. (One part was a bonus room of sorts, and had been wired with Romex, though the so-called electrician should have been shot. The junction box hidden in a wall bay was one, plus the wood screw for ground wires…)
One major downside to knob and tube: exterior walls cannot be insulated, because it needs the additional space for heat dissipation. Since the interior walls were 3/8″ plaster over 3/8″ sheetrock-type backer board, I left them alone. Could have fished wires, but the house had more serious problems…
I have a couple of the tubes around here someplace, they can be used to sharpen a knife in a pinch.
All- Thanks and yes, some ‘odd’ things get/got done… And nothing got burned down…
Edison fuses! I grew up with these.
What’s neat is that “Mechanical Products” manufactured a 15 amp, 20 amp, and maybe even a 30 amp “mini breaker”, which was a circuit breaker in an Edison fuse format. My grandparents had one in the fuse panel for the table-saw’s circuit.
Have a look:
https://hemlockhardware.com/products/510203-bussmann-20a-125v-time-delay-mini-breaker
Now the reason I say “maybe” on the 30 amp version is that I vaguely remember ours had a green label, and was rated 30 amps, but it might have been a 20. If I only had a time machine…
I recall them, maybe when I worked at a hardware store around 1970. Not sure if we sold them, but fuses were the mainstream in the houses in the area.
Not sure if the slow-blow fuses (I recall them for some electronics in the 3AG format) made it to 110V Edison format fuses. Would have been nice for big motor circuits.
Yep, there were definitely slow-blow fuses in that format for 15, 20, 25, and 30 Amp fuses.
From years back up to now, if it is electrical, I hire an electrician. As Dirty Harry said, “A man should know his limitations”.
Yes, WSF. Rule is: If you screw up plumbing, you get wet. If you screw up electricity, you can get dead.
If you screw up the plumbing, you might get $#!t on. Or die from dysentery. Proper plumbing precedes prosperous people.
Ag/RCPete- Yeah, I remember those from the hangars we trained in, and the WWII ‘temp’ barracks I lived in at NAS Memphis…
WSF- Same here!
My folks rented out a duplex next door to us, mostly to young Navy couples stationed at the nearby facility. Dad made it absolutely clear to new renters that if he ever opened the fuse box for an apartment (he duplex had separate boxes) he would evict them immediately. Those were the days of course before the government told landlords who they had to rent to.
Uh, add “and found a penny in the fuse slot” when he opened the box. Major brain fart. Dad supplied free fuses to renters who happened to blow one, by the way. Can do things like that when the place is next door. Also, things like taking the young folks fishing with us.
And fuses are kinda like incandescent light bulbs; the “filament” can age out. That reminds me: the furnace here is fused and I gotta work some OT so I can afford some spares.
I remember one farm we were on inn Catskills of N.Y. that had that kind of fuses. We had a lightning strike very close to the house that blew a couple of those fuses aceodd the basement. It also fried a fairly new electric fencer in an adjacent shed. The fencer was unplugged and the power lead was disconnected. I guess I should have disconnected the ground lead too!
Had a lightning strike and some of my lights went out. Went to the fuse box and all that was left was the metal ring. Never found any pieces.
Titan: Metal vapor is hard to see. No fire?
Bob- Good for him!
Robert- Point!
Howard- Wow… probably!
Titan/Robert- Dayum, melted/vaporized the guts huh???