Gallery of Lights


Home Login
Album list Last uploads Last comments Most viewed Top rated My Favorites Search
Home > User galleries > Vince > The dumpster diving adventure! - seasons 2012 and before.
New project: Dividing my original circuit for my shelf in two circuits.
I found this little 30A two fuse panel in the scrap metal container BY PURE LUCK at the local recycle centre. I was digging in the container to reach a 4 lamp troffer (with the authorization of the employee of course!) and something fell on my foot. I was about throwing it farther in the container but I realized it was a panel, WOOPS! 

I brought it and installed it! I can even use period-correct fuses, since I was already collecting them! I even have those Type C fuses not made anymore!
Keywords: Miscellaneous

New project: Dividing my original circuit for my shelf in two circuits.

I found this little 30A two fuse panel in the scrap metal container BY PURE LUCK at the local recycle centre. I was digging in the container to reach a 4 lamp troffer (with the authorization of the employee of course!) and something fell on my foot. I was about throwing it farther in the container but I realized it was a panel, WOOPS!

I brought it and installed it! I can even use period-correct fuses, since I was already collecting them! I even have those Type C fuses not made anymore!

100_0774.jpg 100_0774.jpg 100_0774.jpg 100_0774.jpg 100_0774.jpg
File information
Filename:100_0774.jpg
Album name:Vince / The dumpster diving adventure! - seasons 2012 and before.
Keywords:Miscellaneous
Filesize:518 KiB
Date added:Aug 30, 2010
Dimensions:2592 x 1944 pixels
Displayed:175 times
Color Space:sRGB
Contrast:0
DateTime Original:2010:08:12 11:56:17
Exposure Bias:0 EV
Exposure Mode:0
Exposure Program:Unknown: 0
Exposure Time:1/8 sec
FNumber:f/3.2
Flash:No Flash
Focal length:10.5 mm
ISO:400
Light Source:Unknown: 0
Make:Eastman Kodak Company
Max Aperture:f/3.6
Model:KODAK Z812 IS ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA
URL:http://www.galleryoflights.org/mb/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=3253
Favorites:Add to Favorites

Comment 14 to 33 of 33
Page: 1 - 2

streetlight98   [Jun 25, 2013 at 10:41 PM]
yeaah arcing is an issue with newer switches that are silent yet aren't mercury switches. i forgot about the "SNAP" switches, as i call them. Those are my favorite.
joe_347V   [Jun 25, 2013 at 10:52 PM]
Older non-mercury switches had a snap action like the sound a breaker makes when you flip it. As people didn't like that, they came up with mercury switches to have a (nearly) totally silent switch. As the problems with mercury switches became evident, companies came out with quiet switches which had a weaker spring so it was quieter. It had a problem since if you move the toggle slowly, there was a higher change of arcing occurring at the contacts. Most switches installed today are quiet switches.

On Indicator lights, they were mostly small neon indicators that were in the toggle which light up at times to show the location of the switch in the dark or to show that the load it controls is on like how I mentioned above....

Older switches had a problem with non incandescent loads as it passes a small current through the switch to power the light but newer ones usually have a neutral connection for the neon light. This eliminates the problems they have with non-incandescent loads as the current returned through the neutral but it makes them not compatible with some switch configurations. (IE the type where there's only switched and unswitched hot in the switchbox).

Some dimmers, timers, PCs also need a neutral for the same reason too.
GEsoftwhite100watts   [Jun 25, 2013 at 11:05 PM]
Is i just me or do some older breakers snap more loudly than newer ones? Mike, if you want some serious snapping action, try those safety switches with the spring-loaded handle...I have an old 30A Westinghouse one in Alaska that has a large spring-loaded handle and it's hard, hard, hard, to pull until it gets to a certain point and then, SNAP! It has cartridge fuses...does that mean it's vintage or do those still use those?
joe_347V   [Jun 25, 2013 at 11:07 PM]
Fused disconnects are still made... The ones from Siemens and probably from others have a nice snap action switch inside.
GEsoftwhite100watts   [Jun 25, 2013 at 11:12 PM]
Thanks...when did they phase out cartridge fuses and screw-in fuses in normal residential applications in favor of breakers?
joe_347V   [Jun 25, 2013 at 11:19 PM]
Probably sometime during the mid-early 60s when breakers were introduced to the residential market. Fuses are still code legal in some places but you'll be hard pressed to find a new fused loadcentre though. Cartridge and Edison base fuses are still used in 30A and 60A disconnect boxes though.
GEsoftwhite100watts   [Jun 25, 2013 at 11:22 PM]
And replacement 15A fuses are still made, I see them in the light bulb aisle at any grocery store...
joe_347V   [Jun 25, 2013 at 11:25 PM]
They make a lot more than that...

To name a few 6 1/4A, 15A , 20A and 30A are among the types still made, in slow blow and fast acting types.
GEsoftwhite100watts   [Jun 25, 2013 at 11:40 PM]
Here the slow-blow ones are called "time-delay"" and are are used on circuits with brief overloads, i.e big electric motors starting...
"Slow-blow" makes it sounds like you have high explosives hiding in your fuse box...
joe_347V   [Jun 25, 2013 at 11:42 PM]
Well, fuses blow at overcurrent hence the term slow-blow...
GEsoftwhite100watts   [Jun 26, 2013 at 02:13 AM]
I know, but to me that sounds like it could be taken literally as when a circuit is overloaded, the whole block erupts in a fireball or something...of course I know it means they're just rated to take brief overcurrents for a few seconds.
streetlight98   [Jun 26, 2013 at 02:22 AM]
well just like ignitor is a weird word for a HPS or PSMH starting aid since it doesn't ignite the lamp, what would be setting it on fire. like a grill igniter. though that's what they're called. i jsut call them starters becuase it's easier to type than ignitor since i tend to spell it 'ingitor' when i type fast lol. they're really just more complicated fluorescent starters. Anyways, i wonder, if HID lamps are arc lamps, why can't they use the same sort-circuting method fluorescent starters use to start the lamp? not enough kick to them that way?
GEsoftwhite100watts   [Jun 26, 2013 at 02:47 AM]
IDK...someone else besides me would know.
Or ballast is a weird word for current-limiting devices...IMO "Choke" would be a better word.
streetlight98   [Jun 26, 2013 at 03:02 AM]
well really a ballast is a transformer it jsut doesn't step the voltage to another raw voltage (ex 120 -->240)
joe_347V   [Jun 26, 2013 at 05:21 AM]
Well, fuses often vapourize on a dead short so that sorta looks like something blew up inside.

Ignitor is a weird word too but I guess since a HID lamp striking can also be called the lamp igniting (the arc) so the ignitor is the device that starts the arc.

Ballast is probably from the old ballasts used in ships to stabilize them. A ballast stabilizes the current feeding to a lamp. Choke is often a older word for a inductor and condenser (often seen on starters) is a older word for capacitor. I'm guessing they referred to storing a electric charge as "condensing" electricity back then.
GEsoftwhite100watts   [Jun 27, 2013 at 12:58 AM]
I did know the other/maritime use for "ballast" so I guess it makes sense...
Aren't those little LPF preheat (22w and under) ballasts still referred to as "Chokes"?
streetlight98   [Jun 27, 2013 at 01:09 AM]
chokes are single-coil ballasts like a 240V low wattage MV ballast or a 120V low wattage HPS or a preheat fluorescent choke. a CWA ballast with four coils is not a choke.
GEsoftwhite100watts   [Jun 27, 2013 at 01:12 AM]
Okay, I see.
BTW, I was like "How am I an admin?!" for a few minutes there...you actually had me fooled/confused for awhile! Laughing Rolling Eyes
joe_347V   [Jun 28, 2013 at 06:33 AM]
A choke is what's commonly known in electronics as a inductor, how does this relate to ballasts? Well in those low wattage preheat ballast, a simple inductor is all that's needed to ballast the lamp. And there's how the small preheat ballasts became known as chokes.
GEsoftwhite100watts   [Jun 29, 2013 at 02:34 AM]
Ahh thanks...

Comment 14 to 33 of 33
Page: 1 - 2