Cooper bomb nose pistol No 7

[Madbomber31]

Nice nose pistol No 7

 

[wichitaslumlord]

Hello, I have what I believe is a U.S. Mk II-B 24lb bomb which is a copy of the Cooper. My nose pistol has the lug seen on your casting but with a hole drilled in it. It also has an eyelet 90 degrees away. Two of the arming vane blades are drilled as seen on yours and these holes line up with the lug and the eyelet.
Does anyone know the reason for both means of securing the vane? Also, I saw information at Aberdeen stating that this bomb was designed to burst in the air over the target. How does this fuse function? Thanks in advance for any answers! Pat

P.S. camera is in for repair so no pictures at this time.

 

[Fusse2004]

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Hello Jack! The NO 7 US is. Model? I know only the UK. Model NO 16:hmmmm2: Greeting Harry

 

[Madbomber31]

Hallo Harry,

The fuze is a WO1 fuze from 1918, the No 16 looks like to be from the 1920's.
There is a good book from David Andrews and Alan Swan, UK BOMB AND ROCKET PISTOLS AND FUZES.

 

[Madbomber31]

Hi Pat,

Here a drawing of the No 16 fuze only sorry its in German :tinysmile_grin_t:
Its from the Peter Voss Book Brit.Abwurfmun. Bis 1945

 

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Windrad = fin
Sicherungsdraht = arming wire
Zahnrad mit acht Zhnen = Cog Whell with 8 gear teeth
Scherdraht = Shear wire
Detonator = detonator
Schwenkachse = Axis = Centre arbor
Zwischenrad = intermediate gear
Sicherungs-drehplatte = hold rotating plate

Courtesy of Jean Paul
John

 

[EODGUY]

The US copy of the Cooper bomb was the 25 lb. Mk-IIB Fragmentation Bomb. The fuze was the Mk XII impact fuze. I have no reference to an airburst fuze for the bomb at any point in its use. At some point in time the Mk-IIB designation for the bomb was changed to Mk III, but this was after the war. The Mk-IIB was made in large quantities during WWI and was kept as limited standard for many years after the war in war reserve stocks. The US forces did not think the bomb was safe to fly without a safety so it was modified for US aircraft. We wanted the aircraft to be able to drop the bombs unarmed with the safety wire still in place if the aircraft had problems over friendly country. Provisions were made for an arming wire to allow dropping the bomb safely. The modification was a screw eye placed in the bomb body and a hole drilled through one of the fuze impeller vanes. This allowed a safety wire to be strung from the aircraft through the suspension lug, the screw eye and finally the vane. Contracts for the bombs were not let until August 1918, with two major manufacturers, Lycoming Foundry & Machine Co. and Paige-Detroit Motor Car Co. By December 1918 Lycoming was producing 500 bombs a day and Paige-Detroit was reaching full production capacity.
My example is stencilled Mk IIB in black on the bomb body. There is no screw eye pon the bomb body and I can find no place where it would have been. Only one vane has a hole in it. (I have a manual copy with a drawing that shows a hole in two vanes.) There are two protrusions on the curved portion of the fuze body each with a small hole, but it does not look like they would be used for an arming wire. My suspicion is that this is a British bomb that was re-marked for US use prior to our production, but I have no way of proving that.

 

[wichitaslumlord]

Thanks to all for the great responses! EODGUY's reply makes a lot of sense. The information I got from Aberdeen was printed on a sign next to one of these bombs which was on display. It said "THIS BOMB IS AN AMERICAN-PRODUCED COPY OF THE BRITISH COOPER BOMB. IT WAS DESIGNED TO BURST IN THE AIR OVER THE TARGET, DISPERSING FRAGMENTS OVER A 40-YARD AREA. IT WAS OFTEN CARRIED BY AIRCRAFT IN A FOUR-BOMB PAYLOAD."
I was surprised by this sign because I was not aware of an aerial bursting fuse that early. Thanks again for taking the time to provide information. Pat

 

[Fusse2004]

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Hello! I took times to mean fuzes apart! Harry