Also 8 feuze. [ad. It. fuso (:—L. fūsus) spindle, hence applied to the spindle-shaped tube originally used as a ‘fuse’ for a bomb, etc. Cf. FUSEE2 3.]
1. A tube, casing, cord, etc., filled or saturated with combustible material, by means of which a military shell, the blast of a mine, etc., is ignited and exploded.
1644. Nye, Gunnery (1670), 63. Every Ball hath a hole, left to put in a Fuse or piece of wood just like a Faucet for a spigot … made taper.
1692. Capt. Smith’s Seaman’s Gram., II. xxxi. 145. It is far more certain to fire a Morter-piece with Fuses then with Match.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), C c iv. The fuse … is generally a conical tube, formed of beech, willow, or some dry wood, and filled with a composition of sulphur, salt petre, and mealed powder.
1863. Kinglake, Crimea (1876), I. xiv. 240. The other was the man standing by with a lighted match, and determined to touch the fuse.
1869. R. B. Smyth, Gold Fields of Victoria, 612. Fuse—Fuze—A small cylindrical cord filled with powder or other combustible matter used for igniting the powder in a bore-hole.
1879. Fife-Cookson, Armies of Balkans, ii. 25. The shrapnel … did execution around us, the time fuzes acting well.
b. Prepared material of which fuses may be made by cutting it into lengths.
1767. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1792), II. x. 86. On a certain moonless night they mustered four tame cats, and having bound some feuze round three or four inches of the extremity of each of their tails, they lodged them together in a bag.
1884. [see quot. for fuse-bag in 2].
2. attrib. and Comb., as fuse-bag, -composition, -hole. Also fuse-cutter, -extractor, -gauge, -saw, -setter, -tape (see quots.).
1884. Mil. Engin., I. II. 109. Each *fuze bag to contain eight pieces of Bickford fuze.
1846. Greener, Sc. Gunnery, 49. I therefore venture to suggest the possibility of the *fuse composition becoming altered in its properties, by the action of time and moisture, or by extreme dryness.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 929–30. *Fuse-cutter. An implement for gaging time-fuses to the desired seconds and fractions…. The cutter for paper fuses for rifled guns, which necessarily are required to burn much longer, is more usually called a fuse-gage. It is a block of wood with a graduated brass gage let into one side, and having a hinged knife working on the same side, like a tobacco-knife, by which the fuse, which is marked on the side to seconds and fractions, is cut off so as to burn any required length of time. Ibid., 930/1. *Fuse-extractor. This implement is designed for extracting fuses from shells.
1874. * Fuse-gage [see fuse-cutter].
1692. Capt. Smith’s Seaman’s Gram., II. xxxi. 146. Try your Shells … by putting in a little Powder, and firing it, immediately stopping the *Fuse-hole with Clay.
1858. Greener, Gunnery, 83. A light cast-iron hollow ball, with a fuse hole.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 930/2. *Fuse-saw. A tenon-saw used by artillery-men. Ibid. *Fuse-setter. An implement for driving home wooden fuses. Ibid. *Fuse-tape. A flat form of fuse, coated externally with pitch or tar, and served to prevent the coating from cracking, or covered with two wraps and an interposed lap of cotton.
