The 3 -Amp fuse that almost ate a city.
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýAs a lifelong electrical engineer working in power generation and distribution, that utility device that tries 3 times to re-energize the lines, is knows as a circuit breaker reclosure. ? It actually tries to blow the fault clear.? After the third attempt, it locks out and in comes the utility guys. ? Bill K2WH From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of William Barrett, KW1B via groups.io
Sent: Saturday, October 01, 2022 1:21 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [HallicraftersRadios] The 3 -Amp fuse that almost ate a city. ? I'll trade this one in return: ? I was working on a minor problem with an "NF-105" receiver by Singer-Metrics.? I had taken the line?fuse out for safety: cartridge style, bayonet rear panel type, 3-Amp.? Common. ? I finished the tweak and put the fuse back in.? The instant I did, all the lights in the (RF shielded enclosure/room) went out!? As an instant nerve reaction, I pulled the fuse back out. ? The lights instantly came back on.? This geatly puzzled me, so after a beat, and a dumb-ass frown, I stuck it back in.? BANG!? The lights went out! ? Instinctively, I jerked it right out again -- and the lights and all the other things in the room -- mostly other instruments or test gear -- all popped back to life. ? So, being a stubborn and determined if puzzled worker, and realizing This Was All Quite Impossible, I stuck it back in. ? And BANG! The lights and everything else?went out instantly!! This time, though, as I retracted, the lights stayed out. ? I went out to the production floor and found the Plant Manager, a very powerful title in Real American Industry.? All the big machines were spinning down, the emergency lights had come on, and there was lots of excited hollering and running feet. ? General Big-Ass Huge Power Failure.? Metal band saws had stalled and seized up in the workpiece, lathes were spinng down or jammed, total chaos.? My guilt was very strong. ? I found the plant manager, and as I was apologizing to his VERY distracted self, he said, "Whattya want Kidd?? Can't you see the power's off? There's a big thunderstorm outside, and a branch fell over the power lines!!? Get OUTTA my face !!!!? WhatEVER you want, we'll fix it later!!!!"? and he re-joined all the running and hollering people. ? Turns out...?? Some utility pole transformers have a "Try-Three-Times And-Quit" sorta restore switch.? And it had tried three times and blown open till the fault wold be removed by the linemen, and re-set. ? By purest of coincidence, my fuse stickings had all quite accidentally and coincidentally PERFECTLY synched up with the 3X & Die protector out in the street. ? I thought I had somehow (impossibly) blown the whole plant with my little 3-Amp fuse. ? ??? 73 KW1B -- K2WH |
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýSorry guys.. another story ?slightly off topic ? Back in 1990¡¯s? they were removing a tree next to a power line ?2 doors away and at the moment in question they had the boom truck bucket and cutter guy right beside the power pole and wires.? The situation had gathered and audience of local? onlookers, and suddenly all the lights went out, the rest of the street came over? pointing fingers? etc, .? The tree cutters were fine, but we all labeled them as guilty. ?They must have had an earlier cell phone,? and said the power was out everywhere: ?most of southern Ontario and maybe down south. It took a while for us to believe them, but some radio stations were still running and the news came thru. So it wasn¡¯t them. There was a major Outage. ? Fast forward a few years, when I had 6 Ash trees infected with the Ash Borer, so they had to go. One of the trees at the front was what I call a Vee tree and the big? trunk was very tilted towards the street.? ?I came back from lunch with a friend? to find another gathering .. power trucks down the street and at my place and people standing around, and that big hunk of ,30-40 feet of tree had landed on the ground and into the street, taking the street power lines down and ripping lines right off some houses. Luckily I had hired a contractor, not a friend.?? It was not long before every tree cutter in town was taking a tour around the block ?to see what they had done. The laws of physics prevailed: that tree was destined to go over the power lines and onto the ?road, if it was cut in such ?a long piece. Sometimes stuff does not fail? but peoples¡¯ brains fail. ? Don VA3DRL
? From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of William Barrett, KW1B via groups.io
Sent: Saturday, October 1, 2022 1:21 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [HallicraftersRadios] The 3 -Amp fuse that almost ate a city. ? I'll trade this one in return: ? I was working on a minor problem with an "NF-105" receiver by Singer-Metrics.? I had taken the line?fuse out for safety: cartridge style, bayonet rear panel type, 3-Amp.? Common. ? I finished the tweak and put the fuse back in.? The instant I did, all the lights in the (RF shielded enclosure/room) went out!? As an instant nerve reaction, I pulled the fuse back out. ? The lights instantly came back on.? This geatly puzzled me, so after a beat, and a dumb-ass frown, I stuck it back in.? BANG!? The lights went out! ? Instinctively, I jerked it right out again -- and the lights and all the other things in the room -- mostly other instruments or test gear -- all popped back to life. ? So, being a stubborn and determined if puzzled worker, and realizing This Was All Quite Impossible, I stuck it back in. ? And BANG! The lights and everything else?went out instantly!! This time, though, as I retracted, the lights stayed out. ? I went out to the production floor and found the Plant Manager, a very powerful title in Real American Industry.? All the big machines were spinning down, the emergency lights had come on, and there was lots of excited hollering and running feet. ? General Big-Ass Huge Power Failure.? Metal band saws had stalled and seized up in the workpiece, lathes were spinng down or jammed, total chaos.? My guilt was very strong. ? I found the plant manager, and as I was apologizing to his VERY distracted self, he said, "Whattya want Kidd?? Can't you see the power's off? There's a big thunderstorm outside, and a branch fell over the power lines!!? Get OUTTA my face !!!!? WhatEVER you want, we'll fix it later!!!!"? and he re-joined all the running and hollering people. ? Turns out...?? Some utility pole transformers have a "Try-Three-Times And-Quit" sorta restore switch.? And it had tried three times and blown open till the fault wold be removed by the linemen, and re-set. ? By purest of coincidence, my fuse stickings had all quite accidentally and coincidentally PERFECTLY synched up with the 3X & Die protector out in the street. ? I thought I had somehow (impossibly) blown the whole plant with my little 3-Amp fuse. ? ??? 73 KW1B ===? trimmed |
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How about this one.
True Story, this was in a 50's or 60's Popular Electronics magazine. A woman calls a TV repair guy with a problem with their TV, the repairman shows up, fixing the TV (bad tube) and goes home. Late that night, the woman call again and this time the problem is the TV will not shut off, because the dial light is still on. On the phone, the repair guy tells the woman to do various things and finally tells her to pull the plug. She told him the light is still on. This he had to see, jumps in his car goes to her house and sure enough, the dial light is on with the TV plug pulled. He pulls the back off the TV and finds out he left his penlight perched on the channel selector drum. K2WH |
Bill (Group Owner)
don Root