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Cartridge Fuses in Domestic Fuse Boxes.

Zoomup
How many domestic fuse boxes have you come across within the last year that have B.S. 1361 cartridge fuses in them? I came across one today. You know the ones. The 5 Amp cartridge fuse is just a little shorter than a 5 Amp. 13 Amp.  plug fuse. The 15 Amp fuse is coloured blue, 20 Amp yellow and 30 Amp red. The shower fuse may have been 35/40 or 45 Amp. I seem to remember that the 45 Amp carrier was orange. I have an old Wylex carrier here that has a brown cartridge fuse carrier and an orange base. I was impressed years ago with a cartridge fuse maker's video advert. It said that when a fuse blows you fit a new unused cartridge fuse that affords great protection and reliability, unlike with a circuit breaker that after time and many operations may become unreliable. That impressed me at the time.


Z.
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    kellyselectric:

    Chris Pearson you are very cheeky I'm not that old! I did have an interest in electrics right from an early age when our house was rewired in 1980 I was 13 years old ...




    That's late! ?


    Ever since I can remember, I always took an interest in trades men's activities at home. They must have been nice blokes (sorry, no women, but why not?) 'cos they seemed happy for me to stand and watch.


    We moved from a BS 546 house to a BS 1363 one in 1963 when I was 4. Father allowed us to play with the old plugs and bits of cable safe in the knowledge that we couldn't plug them in. By junior school age, I could wire up a plug or change a fuse wire. Nowadays, it probably seems a bit odd.


    Moving forward a couple of generations, daughter complains that I never showed her how to do "boy things", but (a) she never showed any interest, and (b) she is being naughtily sexist. Unfortunately, neither grand-daughter shows any interest. I am "Grandpa Fixit", but neither wants to stand and watch.


    I do worry a little as to what will happen to all my workshop and contents after I die. I would like them to go to a good home. Maybe, if I live to be very old, a great-grandchild might be interested.

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    Zoomup:

    How many domestic fuse boxes have you come across within the last year that have B.S. 1361 cartridge fuses in them



    They were very common here at a time. I come across them frequently. In fact my own house had one until about three years ago when I replaced it.
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    I have a selection of spare fuses on my van to suit these boards, I have not needed any lately and they have travelled many miles, but the day I take them off the van will be the day I need them.


    Andy Betteridge
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    mapj1:

    In the late 1980s I helped as a teenager to put a few in, equally the hot wire boards were still more common, being cheaper, and I think the reign of the cartridge fuse as king was probably quite short - MCBs must have been coming in the 1990, and dominant by 2000 or so. In most cases the transition has been straight from various  noahs ark era stuff, to  BS3036 in the '50s to MCBs of some sort.



    IME the cartridge fuse was never king.

    Cost being one reason but also because you could not see if it had blown.

    It was not uncommon to find the spare cartridges in or near the cartridge fusebox were already blown.

    They looked too good to throw away!

    The wired fuse continued supreme right up into the late 1970s slowly overtaken by MCBs.

    However the MCB was readily available in the mid 1960s.

    Wylex sold push button ones at a pound a pop if I recall correctly.

    When you consider the average cost of materials for rewiring a 3 bedroom house was about £25 in those days you can understand why not many of them were fitted.

    (I fitted MCBs to many pensioner homes who were happy to pay the extra to avoid fiddly fusewire etc.)
  • 0
    "in 1980 I was 13 years old "

    Young whippersnapper!


    In 1970 I was 5 times your age

    1990 I was 1,5 times your age.

    See you catching me up.

    You will be as old as me soon!

    Do not overtake me - I will be a bit miffed when you do that
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    There were fuse testers available in shops that were battery operated and had a torch bulb in them. A simple continuity tester. You placed a cartridge fuse on their contacts and the light lit if the fuse was good. The design allowed cartridge fuses of many lengths to be tested by having a long brass contact strip. Or if you were lucky enough to have a school child interested in physics or science they could test fuses using a battery and door bell or a cycle lamp.


    Z.
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    A couple of years ago I tried to buy a fuse holder to fit in a dedicated consumer unit for a fire suppression unit as I thought it was a better idea than a MCB as it would be less likely to be turned off by the tenants in the house.


    I gave up on that idea as none of the wholesalers could supply one as they are generally considered obsolete and none of them want to mess about trying to source a single item.


    Andy Betteridge
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    The old GPO telephones had fuses back at the exchange, the fusewire held a spring clip in place. If the fuse blew the spring arm popped out with a little flag on it - cute
  • 0

    ebee:

    In 1970 I was 5 times your age




    But you were only 1.25 times my age....

    I guessed you were about that from your picture, albeit you are using a colour image of something that was originally made in b&w.

  • 0
    And, for those like myself of course, who are too young to remember much before the moon landing - here is a link to "Fireball XL5" -Gerry Anderson's space adventure, created pre-thunderbirds, but similar techniques.

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