[AT] One additional wiring note

[Cecil E Monson]

	As Farmer said, checking for loose screws and connections it
your main panel box is important. Overloading circuits will cause fires
- if not right away, eventually.

	About 40 years ago, we had bought a two family house and had
been in it for about a year. This house had the old knob and tube wiring
and had 30 amp service that served both upstairs and downstairs apartments
in the house. This setup gave me a quick lesson in electrical safety.

	Unbeknownst to me, the tenants upstairs had decided it was much
better to use all electrical appliances in their kitchen instead of cooking
on the gas stove. They had everything up there under the sun that was
electrical and when cooking apparently used most of these appliances at
the same time.

	One evening just as it was getting dark, I happened to go down
the cellar stairs. The light switch was halfway down the stairs and just
as I was reaching for it, I saw a red glow ahead of me. When I turned the
lights on, I saw it was coming from the panel box. Those old 30 amp boxes
had cartridge fuses for the mains and if I remember correctly, 4 screw-in
glass fuses for circuits in the house. As I opened the cover of the box,
I saw that the entire rear of the box was red hot - a fire ready to start.
I pulled handle and shut off power to the house and called a friend of
mine who was a licensed electrician. He came right over and checked the
fuses first thing. Wouldn't you know, the tenant had put a nickel coin in
behind the glass fuse that served his kitchen because, as he said later,
it kept blowing fuses.  Geez, that was scary.

	I don't remember what we did to be sure the electric service was
safe to use that night but the next day we cut in a new electric panel
and then over a period of time, rewired the entire house with new wiring
wherever we could get to it. I was very lucky as these old houses with
balloon framing were known to go up quickly in a fire and that panel box
was under both the main entrance to the house but also under the stairs
leading to the upstairs apartment.

Cecil
-- 
The nicest thing about telling the truth is you never have to wonder
what you said.

Cecil E Monson
Lucille Hand-Monson
Mountainville, New York   Just a little east of the North Pole

Allis Chalmers tractors and equipment

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