Don’t use the gum wrapper

Today’s picture is of impending annoyance. The thing you’re looking at isn’t particularly annoying, but chances are, the only time you have interacted with it, you have been annoyed. At least, that has been my experience. Is that a good enough hint? Scroll to see the bigger picture.

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It’s a fuse. A glass body cartridge type fuse to be exact. The fact that it is included on this board gives you a clue to the vintage of gear we are looking at.

Fuses have an interesting history that dates back to the 1800s, before they were fuses. An example, in telegraph stations, reduced section conductors were recommended to protect the apparatus and wiring inside the building from lightning strikes.

The title is a reference to an old trick. If you blow a cartridge fuse, like this one. You can take the foil from a gum wrapper and wrap the fuse in it to complete the circuit. Of course, you should never do that, because the circuit will now be operating without the protection of the fuse.

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