Antique Electric Fuse Box

Just picked up this old 40 lb slate fuse panel. I don't think it would pass today's standards? Any clue when it was made or what it was used for??

 

Knife switches? I think not! The inspector would have a cow. Something to do with commercial electric lighting. Street lights maybe. Furthest I could get.

 

If you didn’t know what was safe to touch, you learned quickly ( if you were still around) Insulation is for wimps anyway! It actually appeals to me as something that would look cool shadowboxed, but I’m an old engineer.

 

Bet it would still work fine if you could find the fuses. Not up to modern safety standards, but that old school tech was close to kill-proof. I'd set it into the base of a coffee table instead of trying to hang 40 pounds of rock on a wall. (metallurgist's daughter; I understand the vibe.)

 

https://archive.org/details/electricalnews1913p1/page/n705/mode/2up
The answer might be in catalogue no. 12