Milford chronicle., 1953-05-15
How To Burn
Your House Down
BY J. R. Carroll
Agriculture Engineer

agriculture Engineer
Over 10000 American homes viii
be damaged this year from fires
caused by misuse of electricity. An
estimated 500 lives will be lost.
damage will run into millions.
Much Of this death and destruc-
tion will result from the fact that
most people do not understand the
principle behind one Of the sim
plest, but most important gadgets
in their hOme-the fuse. In the an
pliance filled homes Of today. the
fuse has become one of the big
gest nuisances. 1t is always burn
ing Out-that is, it is being burned
out by people who try to put more
electricity through it than il is
designed to carry.
This is the way the fuse works:
Each branch circuit in a home has
safe capacity of Is amperes. ex-
cept the appliance circuit which
has a safe capacity of 20 amperes
An ampere is the measure of the
quantity of electricity The electri-
cal consumption of most household
appliances is indicated in watts
For all practical purposes. 100
watts will use one ampere of cleo
tTicity.
Let's say the housewife is in the
kitchen ironing. The iron is rated
at about 1000 watts and uses about
~ anperes electricity. She decides
TO make some toast for a little
snack The tOaster takes between
and 10 amps. At the same time
the refrigerator, at about 2 amps.
starts and-Wham! out goes the
fuse.
What happened? Well, 10 amps
for the iron, to 10 amps for the
LoasteF and more when the re-
frigeratOr started and the circuit
was overloaded. In the fusebOx the
little piece of metal in the 20 am
pere fuse melted, opening up the
circuit.
II the housewife understands
What happened, she will pull the |
main fuses and replace the burn |
ed out fuse with a good one of the |
same amperage and will not have |
SO many things on all at once next |
time. A-0A'
But what often times hsDDens is
that the person uses a larger am
perage fuse, or tries to use a penny
Dehlnd the fuse. For a short per-
100 OF time, this larger fuse or cain
viii permit everything to be used
at once. But then the circuit will /
OVeFneat, burn out the wiring and
possibly start a fire, burning the
house down. '-''
frequently, a person is ont of
Iuses and goes to town for some
new ones. The store clerk asks
WHAT'S the matter, did the others
Durn out? When you say yes, then
the clerk say What you need is
larger fuses" This type of clerk
Is one OF the lowest forms of I'M
nanlty. He should be placed in
the same class as an arsOnist he
is actually suggesting arson. u a
lie is lost IL the fire he shOuId ho
charged with manslaughter and
prosecuted to the fullest extent NJ
IIiS, SliE Jaw as though he had actually
killed the person.
, i know, from checking at mem
ners homes, that their increasinAI
use OF electricity is fast OutgrOw-
ing the current-carrying of the
wiring. - 'Ae
Probably one half of our mem
Ders homes were wired before the
war when two or three cireuits
sumced. These members are prob
ably blowing fuses at an increas-
ing rate, or have too large a fuse
10 blow and the wires heat when
an overload is reached.
IL is common practice among
some appliance dealers, when in.
5Ialllng new appliances, to inst
plug them into the existing wiring !
1r extend the existing circuit Then
Vhen the member has troubla with 7
ne appliances the dealers saw /
checK with the Coop, the volt
lge is low" Most of these dealers
never even checked the voltage and
probably wouldn't know how tn If
hey had vOltmeter. Z
however, a few dealers are doing 6
very good job. When new cir :
,ults are needed for an appliance i
ney put in a new circuit. Some I
INES they even straighten IN :
nesses other dealers have made i
II you find that you are frequent t
y blowing fuses because of over
oad' you don't need larger fuses. a
'ou need more circuits. Some P
ZONES today need as many as two
r three special appliance circuits a
you are having this sort of S
IFOuDle, get in touch with your 7
,OWer Use Adviser for help in n
manning new circuits. Let's not K
ave any houses burn down he. :
ause OF overloaded circuits. v