blackwatch
Well-Known Member
Can anybody tell me who T.G.C is ?
This maker is on a 1942 117 fuze
This maker is on a 1942 117 fuze
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Btittish manufacturer T.G.C
- Thread starter blackwatch
- Start date
blackwatch
Well-Known Member
Thanks , Tim
The factory was in Springfield Road, Hayes Middlesex and continued in business until the late 80's (from memory). It made proximity fuzes in large numbers and monograms include TGC, SR and EMI. The factory was set up in the war and was an 'agency factory', that is it belonged to the Ministry of Supply was was run by the Gramophone Company who hada series of factories in and around Blyth Road, Hayes (Blyth was a senior manager of the Hayes National Shell Filling Factory in WW1). TGC worked on early proximity fuzes (and the 710 pistol) before the secrets were transferred to the USA (Tizard etc).
When I worked in the Research Lab there in the late 60s there were thousands of fuzes of the N97 sort lying all over the lab, and every drawer had an old fuze, or parts, in it. There was also an example of every shell that the Services had, or had had, probably since the start of the factory plus earlier ww1 examples. These were for testing the 'aerial' characteristics of the shell plus a proximity fuze. Guess who had to lug the shell to the test rig - how I hated 175mm. Mortar VT fuzes were also designed there and the company made the little generator for firing the cratering charge. One of these generators was fitted into an experimental 81mm Mortar Bomb with contra-rotating vanes to power the Prox fuze. When the factory closed I tried to get the experimental bomb for the School of Ammunition but the staff there were so p** off that they were not interested in preserving history. So under the foundation of the development that followed are...
Ranger mine was one of their's too.
When I worked in the Research Lab there in the late 60s there were thousands of fuzes of the N97 sort lying all over the lab, and every drawer had an old fuze, or parts, in it. There was also an example of every shell that the Services had, or had had, probably since the start of the factory plus earlier ww1 examples. These were for testing the 'aerial' characteristics of the shell plus a proximity fuze. Guess who had to lug the shell to the test rig - how I hated 175mm. Mortar VT fuzes were also designed there and the company made the little generator for firing the cratering charge. One of these generators was fitted into an experimental 81mm Mortar Bomb with contra-rotating vanes to power the Prox fuze. When the factory closed I tried to get the experimental bomb for the School of Ammunition but the staff there were so p** off that they were not interested in preserving history. So under the foundation of the development that followed are...
Ranger mine was one of their's too.