yeaah arcing is an issue with newer switches that are silent yet aren't mercury switches. i forgot about the "SNAP" switches, as i call them. Those are my favorite.

Older non-mercury switches had a snap action like the sound a breaker makes when you flip it. As people didn't like that, they came up with mercury switches to have a (nearly) totally silent switch. As the problems with mercury switches became evident, companies came out with quiet switches which had a weaker spring so it was quieter. It had a problem since if you move the toggle slowly, there was a higher change of arcing occurring at the contacts. Most switches installed today are quiet switches.

On Indicator lights, they were mostly small neon indicators that were in the toggle which light up at times to show the location of the switch in the dark or to show that the load it controls is on like how I mentioned above....

Older switches had a problem with non incandescent loads as it passes a small current through the switch to power the light but newer ones usually have a neutral connection for the neon light. This eliminates the problems they have with non-incandescent loads as the current returned through the neutral but it makes them not compatible with some switch configurations. (IE the type where there's only switched and unswitched hot in the switchbox).

Some dimmers, timers, PCs also need a neutral for the same reason too.

Is i just me or do some older breakers snap more loudly than newer ones? Mike, if you want some serious snapping action, try those safety switches with the spring-loaded handle...I have an old 30A Westinghouse one in Alaska that has a large spring-loaded handle and it's hard, hard, hard, to pull until it gets to a certain point and then, SNAP! It has cartridge fuses...does that mean it's vintage or do those still use those?

Fused disconnects are still made... The ones from Siemens and probably from others have a nice snap action switch inside.

Thanks...when did they phase out cartridge fuses and screw-in fuses in normal residential applications in favor of breakers?

Probably sometime during the mid-early 60s when breakers were introduced to the residential market. Fuses are still code legal in some places but you'll be hard pressed to find a new fused loadcentre though. Cartridge and Edison base fuses are still used in 30A and 60A disconnect boxes though.

And replacement 15A fuses are still made, I see them in the light bulb aisle at any grocery store...

They make a lot more than that...

To name a few 6 1/4A, 15A , 20A and 30A are among the types still made, in slow blow and fast acting types.

Here the slow-blow ones are called "time-delay"" and are are used on circuits with brief overloads, i.e big electric motors starting...
"Slow-blow" makes it sounds like you have high explosives hiding in your fuse box...

Well, fuses blow at overcurrent hence the term slow-blow...

I know, but to me that sounds like it could be taken literally as when a circuit is overloaded, the whole block erupts in a fireball or something...of course I know it means they're just rated to take brief overcurrents for a few seconds.

well just like ignitor is a weird word for a HPS or PSMH starting aid since it doesn't ignite the lamp, what would be setting it on fire. like a grill igniter. though that's what they're called. i jsut call them starters becuase it's easier to type than ignitor since i tend to spell it 'ingitor' when i type fast lol. they're really just more complicated fluorescent starters. Anyways, i wonder, if HID lamps are arc lamps, why can't they use the same sort-circuting method fluorescent starters use to start the lamp? not enough kick to them that way?

IDK...someone else besides me would know.
Or ballast is a weird word for current-limiting devices...IMO "Choke" would be a better word.

well really a ballast is a transformer it jsut doesn't step the voltage to another raw voltage (ex 120 -->240)

Well, fuses often vapourize on a dead short so that sorta looks like something blew up inside.

Ignitor is a weird word too but I guess since a HID lamp striking can also be called the lamp igniting (the arc) so the ignitor is the device that starts the arc.

Ballast is probably from the old ballasts used in ships to stabilize them. A ballast stabilizes the current feeding to a lamp. Choke is often a older word for a inductor and condenser (often seen on starters) is a older word for capacitor. I'm guessing they referred to storing a electric charge as "condensing" electricity back then.

I did know the other/maritime use for "ballast" so I guess it makes sense...
Aren't those little LPF preheat (22w and under) ballasts still referred to as "Chokes"?

chokes are single-coil ballasts like a 240V low wattage MV ballast or a 120V low wattage HPS or a preheat fluorescent choke. a CWA ballast with four coils is not a choke.

Okay, I see.
BTW, I was like "How am I an admin?!" for a few minutes there...you actually had me fooled/confused for awhile!

A choke is what's commonly known in electronics as a inductor, how does this relate to ballasts? Well in those low wattage preheat ballast, a simple inductor is all that's needed to ballast the lamp. And there's how the small preheat ballasts became known as chokes.

Ahh thanks...