Found on beach ordnance or ?

[davekane]

Hello, I found this with my metal detector on a local beach that during the war had barbed wire entanglements as part of it's defences I have also found bullets in the same area which have been identified for me on another part of this site. The metal has no markings on it at all but there was just something about it what made me think land mine although it could just be a bit of old water boiler I've posted a picture on a website in my signature.
Hope it's something interesting thanks for any help.

 

[alan.military]

From your picture, is the metal copper or is that just a patina from the rust?

 

[LCplCombat]

It looks to be pretty beat up? If it were in original condition do you think the "arms" would move?

 

[davekane]

Hi, it's copper and I don't think the arms would move.

 

[roller63]

Looks like the lid from a gun cotton tin, not my specialist area but someone will fill you in on the details, see pic. Tony.

 

[davekane]

That looks like a good match, what is gun cotton?

 

[BerdanIII]

The post-gunpowder, pre-plastic explosive demo material used for AGES by the Commonwealth. It came in small bricks with a hollow for the truncated cone "dry" guncotton primer needed to set it off. The primer had a central hole to accomodate a detonator. Demo manuals from the period show all kinds of fancy methods of lashing the primer to the charge so it wouldn't fall out. There was a specific moisture content ("wet" guncotton) that had to be maintained prior to use. This mandated the use of sealed tins. The manuals go into detail on determining the moisture content and what to do if it was too low. Plastic explosive and TNT must have been seen as Godsends when they were introduced.

 

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Container Lid;

If made of copper my guess would be a black powder storage can.
John