Info on a Shell?

[Gunner Bailey]

John

I don't think you can make that correlation, as although ALCO made the primer, it was probably sent as a component to a filling factory where it was married to a case, shell and fuse from different component factories. One sees ALCO cases with British fuses, or in this example a Canadian case with an ALCO primer.

AFAIK, ALCO were a component producer, not a filling factory.

Regards

TonyE

Tony,

Am I right in thinking that the shell would have been made up of a number of components, shell body, shell case, fuze, fuze cup and primer, which could be sourced from a number of locations and that it was only assembled at a filling plant where the shell and the shell case were both filled and the primer fitted? Filled shell bodies would not be moved to another plant where they would be mated to a filled shell case?

Just trying to get the process straight in my mind.

Thanks

John

[TonyE]

During the first part of the war suppliers generally provided complete items, but after the Ministry of Munitions was formed the arrangements changed around the middle of 1916 and components were then shipped to the national (or other) filling factories.

The benefits of this were to do both with available skills and also inspection.

It meant that components could be made by companies that specialised in one aspect of production (turned steel shell bodies for example) and inspected by on-site inspectors, and then sent on to the filling factories where the finished article was inspected by different inspectors with the requisite skills. It also had benefits in gauge production (a major bottleneck) as every factory did not need a full set of gauges.

In the early part of the war, when all inspection had to be done by the Inspection Department at Woolwich delays were inevitable.

Regards

TonyE

EDIT: I have just seen Nigelfe has posted an almost identical answer on the defective shell thread!

[Gunner Bailey]

During the first part of the war suppliers generally provided complete items, but after the Ministry of Munitions was formed the arrangements changed around the middle of 1916 and components were then shipped to the national (or other) filling factories.

The benefits of this were to do both with available skills and also inspection.

It meant that components could be made by companies that specialised in one aspect of production (turned steel shell bodies for example) and inspected by on-site inspectors, and then sent on to the filling factories where the finished article was inspected by different inspectors with the requisite skills. It also had benefits in gauge production (a major bottleneck) as every factory did not need a full set of gauges.

In the early part of the war, when all inspection had to be done by the Inspection Department at Woolwich delays were inevitable.

Regards

TonyE

EDIT: I have just seen Nigelfe has posted an almost identical answer on the defective shell thread!

Thanks Tony

Apart from the benefits regarding inspection these must have been greater consistency in both explosive and propellant fillings under this method as well.

Any ideas on the anchor in the other thread?

John