On 6/1/2010 2:09 PM RBM spake thus:

The two wires on the left are feeding the panel. They're #10 conductors,
they're sleeved through loom, one is neutral and one is hot. The six wires
on the right are #14 conductors sleeved through loom as well. Each circuit
has a fuse on both hot and neutral. All of those fused neutrals should have
been corrected with solid brass fuse plugs at some later date. The entire
house was fed by a 30 amp 120 volt service. This is the service panel. It
and the main disconnect panel, which I'll link to are located in the attic,
which was also very typical.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b9...icedisconn.jpg

My friend has exactly the same setup in his ca.-1920 house: 4 pairs of
fuses, hot & neutral, inside an asbestos-lined wooden box.

He solved the problem neatly by simply overfusing the neutrals: I think
he has 30 amp fuses on that side, and he put 15-amp circuit breaker
replacement fuses on the hot side. The lower-current breakers will
always trip before the higher-current fuses blow.


--
The fashion in killing has an insouciant, flirty style this spring,
with the flaunting of well-defined muscle, wrapped in flags.

- Comment from an article on Antiwar.com (http://antiwar.com)