Dronic69 said:
Hey Kev,
I'm wondering if it is an alignment mark or a "broad arrow" stamp clearly shown at the base of the gyro in Photo #2 in your first post???
Perhaps the "6/47" is the date stamp?
HNSA website seems to have undergone a facelift and unfortunately quite a number of the old service manuals are no longer available - use to have a number on WW2 British related naval ordnance.
In my opinion the construction appears to be a torpedo gyro - but Jason is the expert on Gyros and giant Ninja Turtles!!! :tongue:.
Cheers
Drew
Hi Drew,
Thanks for your reply; I am now confident that what I have is indeed a Torpedo Gyro. The Gyro flywheel has buckets, but they are concealed in the 'sphere' and can only be seen through two holes which appear to line up with two tubes set into the outer gimbal, when the gyro would be caged. (.....I am learning a little about these amazing items!!) ........ as yet I am not sure how the gyro was 'caged', but this may be obvious to someone with more experience in these items.
As for the arrow in the photo you posted, I can confirm that this is actually an alignment arrow; photo three in post 3 of this thread, shows it aligned with a line and '0' - there is another number which is not easy to read right next to the gimbal, which appears to be a '5' (the whole gyro has residue lubricant - oil or grease and could do with a good clean, though I havent attempted to do anything of the kind yet, as I didnt want to do any harm to it.
Again, I am not sure of the action of the brass section which forms one end of the outer gimbal, but I can only assume at this stage that it is part of 'offset' angle setting, whereby the torpedo is set to run at an angle other than that of the tube that launches it.
There are however other arrows on the Gyro, may be for alignment, but one I think may be a broad arrow - I will photograph them asap.
There does appear to be a lack of any material on British Torpedoes as a whole. Very little on the internet that I can see. It is a pity that the manuals were removed from the website you mention, hopefully though someone will have downloaded them whilst they were there and maybe come up with an answer for this one.
The 6 47 may well be a date, indeed the seller said it was the date, however like everything else I will wait to see. I am not sure if the '/' between the two numbers (ie; 6 / 47), is just a 'scratch' mark which happens to be in the right place, or has been put there on purpose - it appears a little rough in comparison to the stamped numbers.........again I would need to see how other gyros conform, and if dates were put onto them before I can be sure. However having said that, from what I have seen on the internet about these, this one does appear to be a reasonably early example and could well fit into the time period (47 ??). I wouldnt want to narrow things down in my search regarding this mark though, and use it as a 'guide only' in my quest to find out exactly what timeframe and indeed what type of torpedo it is from.
I will upload more photos using daylight as soon as my camera batteries are recharged!!
many thanks Drew, and indeed everyone who has helped me so far with this.
kind regards Kev