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ID Pencil
- Thread starter MINENAZ16
- Start date
Seb,
its 'nickname' was Signal Relay, and to differentiate it from two other devices * it was given the acronym SR1, and to account for modifications a letter was added. By the time it reached service it was SR1E. It was devised by Commander John Langley of Section D (Of SIS) and manufactured by Joseph Lucas Ltd from the Spring of 1939. Improvements advanced the last letter to SR1G which became the No 10 switch. Section D, by this time a part of SOE, organised manufacture in the US as well as continuing with the Lucas contract. About 12 million were made in the US for the SOE, they differ from UK production in minor ways.
* SR0 was an electrolytic delay fuze devised for Langley by the Research Department, Woolwich.
SR2 was a short stubby version of the time pencil which fitted on to a small magnesium incendiary.
Tim,
The spring snout (also one of Langley's inventions) was not devised until later on (late 1940 I think - I will look it up). The switches (Nos 1,2 &3) devised by Jefferis of MD1 (actually it was still MIR(C)) in 1939/40 also used a solid snout to start with. The Fog Signal Relay similarly used a solid snout to begin with. Also the early models of the L Delay (Switch No 9) will be found with the solid snout.
Just to confirm late 1940 is right. Langley handed over his sketches of a spring snout to Major Ramsay Green in August 1940. Ramsay Green was part of the Aston House team (Station XII) and he worked with the Perry Pen Company to develop the production models of the spring snout.