British No 54 & No 55 Time and Percussion Fuses

[Dronic69]

Fellow Fusiliers,

Does anyone have information and preferably diagrams of the British No 54 and 55 time & percussion fuses???

These are very similar to the typical No 56 (see pic) with a single banked combustion time ring.

According to some records, the following brief descriptions are provided:

1) "Fz time & percussion No 54 Middle" {1887 - 1921}

2) "Fz time & percussion No 55 Short" {1882 - 1914}

1st Question:
What is meant by "Middle" and "Short"??? Is this a standard artillery notation for the fuse's physical dimensions or perhaps even powder burn time?

Interesting the No 52 is also referred to as "Medium" and the No 53 is "Small"????

2nd Question:
A lot of references has the No 56 burn of 13 secs, yet the time scale on the fuse indicates 18 sec? Are the references incorrect? (typo) or was in fact the burn time that unreliable and an 18sec indication is really 13secs in flight?

Thoughts?

(anyone cares??? :tinysmile_cry_t
Thanks
Cheers
Drew

 

[spotter]

I have these drawings of a no54 mkIII and the no55 mkIII

 

[Dronic69]

Hi Spotter,

Excellent! - Thank you kindly..........(I did search through your "stickies" but only found the later No65A)

Any ideas what "middle" /"short"/"medium" etc are referring to?

The other "confusing" thing I found with the British Fuse listing, is the stated manufacturing period and conversions:

i.e.
No 63 > manufacturing dates: 1904 - 1922, yet it also states that these were converted to a No 65 in 1913. Why would they continue making them up to 1922?

The No 65A were of new manufacture, so if they were converting the old No 63s to 65s, and started new manufacture of 65As in 1914, I would have thought the end manufacture year was 1913 for the 63s?

Cheers
Drew

BTW - so it appears that the top locking nut is different between the 55 and 56. Both appear to have the same 18 sec time ring......I'm curious as to what "MK" when into production..........

 

[TimG]

Drew,

I think you'll find that the No. 63 was in service between 1904 and 1922, not manufactured between those dates. Furthermore, with a lot of British stores the latter dates is when the store was declared obsolete, in reality all stocks had been exhausted years previously.

Regards

TimG

 

[Dronic69]

Hi Tim,

Yes that makes much more sense!
Thanks for the clarifications!

Cheers
Drew