General Electric and a spoon looking what's it

[MackDigger]

Any ideas?

 

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[Icewing]

Looks like an old screw in house fuse and a broken spoon.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

"Old" screw in fuse? I lived in a house up to 2005 that still used those!

 

[DCMatt]

Funny story about those screw in fuses...


Years ago I was asking permission to hunt a turn of the 20th C house from the elderly woman who lived there.


She had grown up in the house. Somehow the topic of electricity came up. She said the lights never went out at the house when she was growing up.


Long after her father passed away she had to have some electrical work done. The electrician found a penny under every fuse on the panel. Yikes! No wonder they never blew out!


Lucky the house didn't burn down!

 

[jewelerguy]

The electrician found a penny under every fuse on the panel. Yikes!

When I was a kid, my first detector came with a treasure hunting tip booklet. I remember it saying that if houses had outdoor fuse panels to be sure and check the ground underneath it because people (stupid people) would use pennies under their fuses and possibly dropped some.

 

[bradyboy]

yep, glass screw fuse - think many older homes use them, common
Brady

 

[creskol]

what does the other side of the spoon-shaped thing look like?

 

[Anduril]

The fuses with brass threads are called Edison Base Fuses.
There is similar variety with porcelain threads called Rejection Base Fuses.
Rejection base fuses will not allow a larger size fuse to be installed.

The outdoor transformer for my pool light still uses an Edison Base fuse - the rest of the house uses standard circuit breakers.
It blew once, and it was pretty difficult to find a 7-1/2 Amp replacement.

I suspect your fuse is older since it has a glass top.
Many of the more recent variety have metal lids.

 

[creskol]

The fuses with brass threads are called Edison Base Fuses.
There is similar variety with porcelain threads called Rejection Base Fuses.
Rejection base fuses will not allow a larger size fuse to be installed.

The outdoor transformer for my pool light still uses an Edison Base fuse - the rest of the house uses standard circuit breakers.
It blew once, and it was pretty difficult to find a 7-1/2 Amp replacement.

I suspect your fuse is older since it has a glass top.
Many of the more recent variety have metal lids.

.... and here I thought it was just an ordinary glass fuse. They are still used in a lot of older houses.

 

[trdking]

The penny under the fuse was known by everyone. In the early onset of electricity there were not enough circuits installed in the houses. First it was just lights and a radio then refers and vacuums and hair dryers all the way up to microwaves. Why should you call an electrician to add more circuits when that penny worked like a charm?!! People really were not familiar with the danger of overloading the circuits and most did not have the money for the proper fix. Now on to Knob and tube. Look it up, it will scare the bejeezus out of you.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

There is also a screw-in version that has a "RESET" button to convert the old fuse socket to a circuit breaker.

 

[reale bill]

That's a "fusestat" with the adapter on it. Each adapter would only accept a certain amp fuse. Once the adapter was screwed into the fuse panel socket,it could not be removed due to a protruding g spring that would pierce the socket preventing it from being removed. This would assure the proper amp fuse was used