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Toughest story ever
March 11, 2008

This month's print cover story, Protection at full power, is about Littelfuse. It was the toughest story I ever had to write. It's not because of the Littlefuse people, though. They were great and they had cool stories to tell about how they test their products.

It's because of what happened after I left.

While waiting for my flight at O'Hare, I learned that I had lost my father. I spent the entire flight just staring out the window. Since then, I've been clearing things from his house. Dad had an old chest of drawers that was once in my room that he used as his electrical storage cabinet (see photo).


While going through the drawers, I found two metal packages containing Littelfuse fuses (see photo).



One of the boxes reads "Made in Des Plaines, IL," where I had visited. The other reads "Made in Chicago, USA." (The box is in front of me as I write this.) I asked the Littelfuse folks when the company moved from Chicago to Des Plaines. The answer: 1954. The box has three 3 A, 125 V fuses. One is blown, the others are intact. I don't know if there are the fuses that originally came in the box.

Posted by Martin Rowe on March 11, 2008 | Comments (2)