Talk:Tilt fuze

Merge with Mercury switch

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: No consensus has or is likely to emerge in favour of the proposal. (non-admin closure) SN54129 20:56, 15 April 2022 (UTC)

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Support. "Mercury tilt switch" is a fairly well known phrase, at least to anyone who remembers The Troubles (and the assassination of Airey Neave in particular). And fuse is typically spelt "fuze" when used to describe a non-simple burning fuse (Fuse (explosives) - "the term fuse describes a simple pyrotechnic detonating device, like the cord on a firecracker, whereas the term fuze is used to indicate a more sophisticated ignition device incorporating mechanical and/or electronic components"). Cheers,  This flag once was red  12:32, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

I understand this article is about a similar subject, but the two texts should remain split because the amount of information on this particular device, which is used specifically in car bombings, is close enough to being greater than the mergeto article. They should remain separate because the topic does not concern fuses like this in general, but this variant that is often wired to car detonators. "Fuse" is additionally the correct term, according to my to sources. —Anonymous Dissident^Talk 12:47, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Fair enough. My thought was that "tilt fuse" was a neologism, as I've only ever heard "mercury switch" or "mercury tilt switch" used to refer to car-bombing. Re-reading my comment above, "fuze" is a red-herring (i.e. nothing to do with a merge, possibly supporting a rename), though I would be interested to know what your sources are - the Wikipedia article doesn't support this claim, and I grew up with the "fuze" spelling (My father was a naval bomb and mine disposal specialist in Britain and New Zealand, so I had an esoteric education ;-) Cheers,  This flag once was red  20:07, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Hmm, I suppose fuze could potentially be right, it's just that both my book sources use 's' I'll look further into it later today. Best, —Anonymous Dissident^Talk 21:43, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Delete this article completely. Don't bother merging it. The topic of tilt fuzes is already adequately covered by the existing articles on boobytraps and anti-handling devices. Additionally, the spelling of the title is just plain wrong - as someone else has pointed out. The title should be "Tilt fuze". Note the "Z" in the spelling. Believe me, there are major differences between the two. A fuse is not the same as a fuze. Although the two words may sound similar, using the wrong terms to describe something will just confuse people. This is what a typical fuse looks like:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fuse_burning.jpg

And here are some photos of typical fuzes:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuse_(explosives)#Gallery_of_Fuzes

Can you spot the differences? I've held lots of fuzes in my time, and I have also lit a few fuses as well. A couple of other points, the article describes what a mercury tilt switch is, but why not just provide a hyperlink? Here's another inaccuracy: they aren't used in exclusively car bombings as someone else has claimed. If that person had done a bit more research, they'd be aware that tilt switches have also been used for many years in some of the anti-handling devices incorporated into munitions e.g. landmines such as the VS-50 mine and others. They were even used in some Luftwaffe bomb fuzes during World War II! Although the intentions behind creating the article were good, the existing tilt fuse article is living proof that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I vote to delete the article completely. Nabokov (talk) 12:11, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

You'll have to substantiate yourself better than this. The wrong name is not a criterion for deletion; and it seems to me this could even be a spelling thing. See our article on fuze. Oh, hold on: fuze just redirects to fuse! If you have more information to add, add it; don't just whine about its not already being in the article. Sure, the article mostly discusses the car bombing aspect of it, but it's easy as pie to integrate further information if necessary. I've done that. —Anonymous Dissident^Talk 13:23, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Well, to be fair, Fuse is a DAB page - the more relevant page is Fuse (explosives), which lists "Burning Fuses" and "Munition fuzes" (with a note that "most countries use the 'z' spelling to distinguish between simple burning fuses and more complicated munition fuzes"). The article also "see also"s to Artillery fuzes and Proximity fuze. I don't agree that a misspelling (corrected now, anyway) is a reason to delete, though I'm still sceptical as to whether this article should exist alongside Mercury tilt switch. Cheers, This flag once was red^propaganda_deeds 13:32, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, you're right. Either way, fuze redirects to an 's' spelling, which indicates something, no matter which way you look at it. And Mercury tilt switch redirects to a rock band... I assume you mean Mercury switch. I've read the Mercury switch article. I really believe these are distinct topics; the tilt fuze is a type of mercury switch that has distinct uses. Put it this way: vector calculus could easily be a subsection of calculus – but would that be desirable or entirely encyclopedic? No. One may be a subset of the other, but that really isn't a criterion for merging, especially when the subset has a substantial amount of content. See what I mean...? —Anonymous Dissident^Talk 13:40, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Heh! Never heard of the band, but they're fairly local to me (I'm in Glasgow) - what a great name for a band! I do see what you mean, naturally, and if this article was greatly expanded I'd have no hesitation in arguing to retain it. My scepticism is based on the current size of the article - if you think it can be expanded then I'm certainly in no hurry to argue for a merge. Cheers, This flag once was red^propaganda_deeds 13:54, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Article error

The article says, "Tilt fuzes have been used extensively by the Irish Republican Army and Irish National Liberation Army since 1979."

These terrorist groups were using mercury tilt switches years before that. The chemistry laboratory in my school was broken into to steal the mercury for these bombs. Ours was not the only school laboratory to be burgled for this reason.

A reference is cited in the article (Clutterbuck, 1990) to support the year 1979, but apparently the citation was transcribed incorrectly or the reference source is wrong. — O'Dea (talk) 16:11, 18 January 2020 (UTC)