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Unknown Itailian Mine

jvollenberg

Well-Known Member
Ordnance approved
I have an Unknown Italian Mine, or at least I think it's Italian.

Any ideas?

Dia: 98-MM
Height: 45-MM
There are no markings. Black pull tab is connected to arming wire.

Anything anyone can add would be great.

Joe
 

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Actually the internal organization looks very similar to the LORY ...

LORY_01.jpgLORY_02.jpgLORY_03.jpgLORY_04.jpgLORY_05.gif

Do You have any info about LORY 9 ?

Regards
stecol
 
So here is a good question.
I posted the Lory 9, and we have pictures of the Lory. Does anyone know anything about the ones in between?

Joe
 
Do You think that there are seven further models in between?

Not necessarily, until yesterday there was only one LORY .... :tinysmile_fatgrin_t:tinysmile_fatgrin_t
 
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Prior to mine placement, the detonator (figure 2) is installed and the safety pin is removed. When a
pressure of 10.0 to 15.0 kilograms (22.0 to 33.0 pounds) is applied to the pressure dome, air inside the
dome is compressed inflating the expansion bladder. The expansion bladder (while inflated) momentarily
restrains movement of the safety segment assembly. At the same time, the pressure disk (figure 2)
compresses the piston spring and piston against the firing pin body. As the pressure disk shaft travel
ends, the leg of the safety segment assembly comes into alignment with the semi-annular groove in the
pressure disk shaft. Simultaneously the compressed air escapes into the lower portion of the mine
deflating the expansion bladder. This allows the safety segment assembly to pivot removing the sear
from the firing pin body while allowing the leg (opposite end) of the safety segment assembly to move into
the semi-annular groove of the pressure disk shaft. The piston, under spring compression and against
the sloped firing pin body, cams the firing pin body causing to impact the detonator initiating the explosive
train.
 
A real conundrum, Joe, as I have searched every patent between 1945/1980 for IT, NL,ES,DE,US FR & US without success! Lory pistures by Stecol appears to be an earlier design, with two halves screwed together, and a safety wire which appears to be retained by staking-slight depression in top face of Stecol's photos. Lory 9 is of much more sophisticated design, with a safety pin, possibly moulded integrally with the pull tab, and a rubber sleeve sealing the pin aperture, and positevely retained by a lug seated in a recess. The outer skirt -Item 19 in SGDBDR's excellent drawings, must be a soft, resilient elastomer to permit stretching for assembly, and would also absorb impact shock when scattered by discharge from helicopter carried containers. Early efforts to seal these plastic mines by ultrasonic welding proved unsatisfactory through humidity ingress, and metal reinforcement led to splitting through differtial thermal expansion. The use of a safety segment was used in a device patented by Technical Arco Est, Lichenstein, but there were no other similarities.

SGDBDR-do you have the text that goes with your annotated drawings. I am wondering if air leaked from the pressure chamber via clearance along the pressure disc shaft. The construction is so novel & compact that I feel that it must have been patented, but the Italian Patent office is so broke that for long periods copies of the patents have not been circulated to other countries.(It was traditional, in earlier days, when it was important to establish priority, to wrap your patent in a brick, and throw it through a window of the Office at night!) Strangely most of the Italian Plastic mines are to designs by unknown companies registered in Lichtenstein, but by Italian inventors-Brind (Invented the MAUS), AEBI-Invented Valsella Mines & Technical Arco Establishment are some. No Lory! Only somebody in Italy would be able to look for a Lory patent, assuming no foreign patents were taken out.

Martin
 
Just adding to my previous note, the fact that the Lory uses the combination of direct movement and air pressure in a single bladder, to fire the mine, means that it did not suffer from prematures like the earlier Valsella, when temperature differentials existed between top and bottom of the mines (Sun beating down on top, when resting on cold ground). The pressure inside and outside the single bladder of the Lory would automatically balance, after any transients had passed. An excellent design, so it is surprising experts in Italy do not recall much concerning its introduction or demise!

Martin.
 
The War Museum at Rovereto has an archive and a library in the which flew into much of the documentation coming from the companies once operative in the area of Brescia, among the manies Valsella Meccanotecnica, producer of the Lory.
They keep a copy of the Lory 9 monograph published by Meccano Tecnica, it is available for consultation onsite but the Museum also offers a research/reproduction service (@ €0,70 per page, requests to be addressed at the curator Nicola Fontana, archivio@museodellaguerra.it), find attached the archive reference of the Lory 9 monograph for your convenience.
 

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