Any ideas - small bronze hammer / tool

[timbee]

Hoping someone can help identify this. Picked up along with other WW1 relics so assuming it is of that era. It's made of bronze so assuming to avoid sparks. Marked F3 and IV on upper face as well as 3 small letters BE?

Forgot to mesure it but probably an inch and a half long.

[peregrinvs]

It’s a friction tube. Discussed here:

 

Edited 27 September , 2022 by peregrinvs

[Gunner 87]

Hi timbee. Welcome to the forum. peregrinvs beat me to the post and is spot on. This thread may assist you.

 

[timbee]

Thanks for the very prompt and helpful replies. Much appreciated. 

[timbee]

A question that's just come to me. How would these have been removed from the breach after firing or would the force generated by the propellant charge have naturally have ejected them from the firing hole?

[Chasemuseum]

They fit into a pocket at the back of the breech block. They are only fitted after the gun is loaded and the breach closed. The mechanism that locks them in place is opened and the spent igniter is simply pulled out. Nominally they should be collected and returned to be refilled.

Note the design in the sectioned examples. A lanyard is fitted to the pull wire and when the pull wire is quickly removed, a match compound around the wire ignites the black powder train inside the igniter. This burns past a steel ball. When the main propellent charge ignites, the high-pressure gasses push the steel ball back, sealing the pathway so that burning gasses do not vent through the igniter.

 

In earlier use in the 1890s these were fitted to a port on the side of the barrel. The original 15pr Mk I field gun was configured this way. By about 1900 new guns had the port through the breach block even though this had the cumbersome problem of arranging the igniter flash having to pass through a steel tube through the centre of the obturating pad.

[timbee]

Thank you for the information. This came to me with a couple of items that you and others have helped identify as relating to a no. 44 percussion fuze. Is it possible that a projectile fitted with a no. 44 fuse could have been fired from an artillery piece that used this type of friction tube?

 

[Chasemuseum]

Yes

Various models of howitzer including, the 5-inch, 6-inch 30cwt, 6-inch 26cwt and 9.2-inch. I suspect both were used with various other heavy howitzers as well but cannot confirm this.

Additional references are at

http://www.passioncompassion1418.com/decouvertes/english_fusees_collection_gb.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

[timbee]

More great information and the picture really makes it clear where the safety pins came into it. Thanks.