As title, anyone know what this is?  I have an idea, but can't find another identical one to confirm. 🤔

Looks like something to do with either Gas or Water but I can't think what at the moment.

Your butt plug? 

Nice carpet. Wish I had that colour. 😂😂😂😂

25 minutes ago, iantt said:

Your butt plug? 

Well, I can't say that was unexpected!

 

48 minutes ago, Tizer said:

Looks like something to do with either Gas or Water but I can't think what at the moment.

The hole in the bottom goes right through so not air or water tight.  It does look like plumbing grade brass though.  If it's what I think it is, it's quite interesting...but I'm happy to be proved wrong if it's just an old radiator part.

39 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Well, I can't say that was unexpected!

 

The hole in the bottom goes right through so not air or water tight.  It does look like plumbing grade brass though.  If it's what I think it is, it's quite interesting...but I'm happy to be proved wrong if it's just an old radiator part.

Is the hole internally threaded?

Some sort of vent / pressure relief for a large gun barrel ?

The engraving on the end looks a bit military, and there seems to be an arrow at the end of the writing, not entirely unlike the Admiralty arrow symbol. The domed top looks like it unscrews, is there anything inside, gauze, filter element,  sprung non-return valve?

If there is nothing in it, my guess would be an empty detonator, that screws into the back of a shell. But it is a bit of a wild guess.

I think you are right @Tdci-Peter.

 

 

8 hours ago, Tdci-Peter said:

The engraving on the end looks a bit military, and there seems to be an arrow at the end of the writing, not entirely unlike the Admiralty arrow symbol. The domed top looks like it unscrews, is there anything inside, gauze, filter element,  sprung non-return valve?

If there is nothing in it, my guess would be an empty detonator, that screws into the back of a shell. But it is a bit of a wild guess.

That's what I think it is too.  

There isn't anything inside and I can't unscrew the top - but that doesn't mean it didn't unscrew at some point.  I'd been looking at it as just a threaded section rather than 2 separate parts.  Might have to get the magnifying glass out!    

you building a bomb!  

12 hours ago, Tizer said:

Is the hole internally threaded?

Nope, quite a large gap inside and all the small holes are smooth.

 

10 hours ago, unofix said:

Some sort of vent / pressure relief for a large gun barrel ?

Not a bad guess tbh.  I'm almost certain it's military.

1 minute ago, iantt said:

you building a bomb!  

No...  Though I did get some funny looks getting a shipment of fertiliser delivered to my upstairs flat...   I just told them it was for the cannabis farm in my loft...

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

No...  Though I did get some funny looks getting a shipment of fertiliser delivered to my upstairs flat...   I just told them it was for the cannabis farm in my loft...

Knock knock.....

On closer inspection, I think the two parts do screw together, but they're too seized to separate now.

Also the bottom hole IS threaded internally.  The threaded hole is much wider on the inside than it appears from outside.  So possibly some sort of sprung plunger rod could go through there?

Shame I don't know Bruce Crompton's email address to ask!  Actually, is there anywhere I could ask?  I had some metal detecting finds dated at a museum back in the olden days, before the internet existed lol.

4 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

No...  Though I did get some funny looks getting a shipment of fertiliser delivered to my upstairs flat...   I just told them it was for the cannabis farm in my loft...

funny you say that. i was talking about my dad able to grow anything  and we struggle and end up killing plants. my partner suggested we should task him to grow cannabis. just dont tell him what it us. 😀😀

On 9/3/2021 at 5:58 PM, TomsFocus said:

As title, anyone know what this is?  I have an idea, but can't find another identical one to confirm. 🤔

https://stephentaylorhistorian.com/2018/02/26/artillery-shell-cases-fuzes-primers-and-tubes/

23 minutes ago, MarksST said:

https://stephentaylorhistorian.com/2018/02/26/artillery-shell-cases-fuzes-primers-and-tubes/

Brilliant, thanks Mark!  

Give that man a coconut 👍

Well done @MarksST 😀

After I came up with the slightly mad idea, I Googled detonators & fuses, but did not find anything helpful. I also put Tom's image into Google Image search, which is usually very good, but it did not find it. So Mark has beaten Google. And that takes some doing!

Technically I was wrong about it being a detonator, a shell has propellant that needs igniting. Detonating the shell inside the gun would not be a good idea, I certainly would not want to be anywhere near it! I think this device uses a percussion cap (a very small detonation) to ignite the propellant. Then some other device must detonate the high explosive charge when the shell reaches its destination. I am just glad that I have never faced any real possibility of being on the receiving end of things like this, unlike my parents. Both experienced WW2, my mother was in London part of the time, my father got injured on a journey via the Cape of Good Hope, possibly to the far east, and after recovery spent the rest of the war as a draughtsman helping design aircraft & related stuff. He also lived through WW1, though being only 6 at the end, I doubt if he saw much real action!

The more worrying question is where's the rest of it? 🙂

9 hours ago, Tdci-Peter said:

After I came up with the slightly mad idea, I Googled detonators & fuses, but did not find anything helpful. I also put Tom's image into Google Image search, which is usually very good, but it did not find it. So Mark has beaten Google. And that takes some doing!

Technically I was wrong about it being a detonator, a shell has propellant that needs igniting. Detonating the shell inside the gun would not be a good idea, I certainly would not want to be anywhere near it! I think this device uses a percussion cap (a very small detonation) to ignite the propellant. Then some other device must detonate the high explosive charge when the shell reaches its destination. I am just glad that I have never faced any real possibility of being on the receiving end of things like this, unlike my parents. Both experienced WW2, my mother was in London part of the time, my father got injured on a journey via the Cape of Good Hope, possibly to the far east, and after recovery spent the rest of the war as a draughtsman helping design aircraft & related stuff. He also lived through WW1, though being only 6 at the end, I doubt if he saw much real action!

I'm also still slightly confused as to how it actually worked - or even which end it fitted!  I think it goes in the top end under the conical fuse (208 time fuse for a 3.7" AA gun perhaps).  The fuse sets of the small charge in the base of the primer, then that spreads cleanly through the primer holes to set off the full charge.  Same effect as the pre-cups in an old IDI diesel. 

I'd never have coped with war myself, but find it fascinating now.  My Nan lived through WW2 in a village outside London (since been swallowed up by the city) and vividly remembered being pushed into a ditch of nettles out of the firing path of the Red Baron about 7 years old...  However, the internet suggests he'd been dead for 20 years by that point so I'm not sure of the accuracy of that story any more!  I don't doubt the nettles part, but presumably just a 'normal' pilot.

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

I'm also still slightly confused as to how it actually worked - or even which end it fitted!

I have found an interesting (to some!) article in Wikipedia. It looks to me like the primer (which is what you have) goes in the bottom of the cartridge. It is to spread out the effect of the tiny percussion cap in the hole at the bottom, to evenly and quickly ignite the main propellant charge, which fills the cartridge. I guess the percussion cap is set off by a firing pin in the gun. The fuse is in the top of the shell (projectile), and detonates the bad bit.

We had percussion caps on little strips of paper for our toy guns when I was a kid. They made a nice bang, with a whiff of smoke & sulfur. It made shooting my brother in a Western style duel much more realistic, though he usually refused to "die" properly! I have just looked, and you can still buy them: "Rolls of 100 shot paper caps"

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_British_ordnance_terms#QF

Thanks Peter.  There's certainly a lot of engineering involved in making them, especially considering the lack of CAD back then.  Almost seems a shame to blow them up.