On Tuesday, 14 January 2020 14:40:34 UTC, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
whisky-dave wrote:
I thought your reasoning was that if you overloaded the fuse it might
keep working but get very hot and damage the plug (though I thought
they were packed with sand to prevent that happening). .

Sand doesn't stop things getting hot, think of a desert and even beaches
in this country. Sand also has the effect of lenghing the possible
life-time of a fuse running close or even exceeding it's rated value.
The sand will conduct the heat away from the fuse wire so it doesn't
melt quite so easily.

Just wondered if the sand would help prevent the fuse exploding in event
of a sudden severe overload?

Logically , well it does prevent arcing as there's no air to jump across.
Obviuosly I;ve only seen the glass ones 'explode' or rather you get a flash.

I'll ask wodney to put some fuses in a glass of petrol as his ones seem to
alllow water in through the end caps, then he can try them out :-}

Maybe that's why there's so many fires in australia ****ty fuses. ;-)