Can anyone pse id this item?

[Alan1]

This came to me recently; it appears to be a fuze or gaine or something similar. It is marked No 10 1 N BEI 42 and 20. The 20 is probably a Lot number. I originally thought of the 10" BL Naval Coast Gun, but cannot locate it in the equipment or the ammunition.
Appreciate any help.
Alan1.

 

[spotter]

Is this it

Base fuze?

Hi , Can anyone ID this fuze, is it a base fuze or some other type? Has been suggested it might be naval and/or Australian. cheers, Bob

www.bocn.co.uk

 

[ron3350]

A terrible photo I tried to make readable but does not look Australian to me.
Sorry to pick on your photographic skills but a photo must be in focus to help us ID the item.
It is still an interesting item.

 

[Busta]

Thanks for the photos. Once I stopped trying to focus my own eyes and let the pixels win, they turned out to be enough.

I ran the head stamping through an unwrap so the curved lettering could be read flat, and it gives N° 10, a second N° group whose digit hides under a spanner hole, and B F 142 · 20 (142 and 20 are solid, the two letters could be BF or BE). So most likely lot 142, year 1920.

Spoiler: someone knew it

Which means Spotter is almost certainly right. The Gaine No. 10 Mark I plate he linked matches on the things that matter: the N° 10 in the stamping, brass construction, the profile with the threaded head as the widest point stepping down to a plain shank and a base with a screwed plug, and the two notches in the head rim as spanner slots. The No. 10 being the version with shutter plus locking weight, as against the No. 9 with shutter only, fits the plate's labelling exactly.

Two things I cannot close from the photos:
The proportions are slightly off. Measured off the plate, the gaine runs about 1.24 times as long as it is wide, threaded band about 0.4 of the diameter. The item in the photos comes out nearer 1.50 long and 0.57 for the thread. That may just be me measuring a small scan, or a Mark difference, but it would be good to rule out.
The copper part on the face sits dead centre. On the inverted plan the detonator is deliberately off axis, so that central item should be the needle cover or a closing cup rather than the detonator itself.

Three checks would settle it:

1. Outside diameter over the threads, overall length, and length of the threaded band. The plate is at scale 3/4, so drawn dimensions times 4/3 gives real size for comparison.
2. A look into the opposite end. A gaine is hollow and carries a spring, shutter, locking weight and a CE magazine pellet. Solid or empty and the theory dies on the spot.
3. Whether the head has an internal thread for the fuze, and whether there is a Mark numeral and a broad arrow anywhere under raking light.

One thing worth saying out loud: if it is a complete No. 10, there is a 5 grain lead azide detonator and a CE magazine in there. Century-old lead azide is not something to go poking at, so please leave the plug where it is until someone has X-rayed it or established it is empty.

 

[TimG]

No. 10 Gaine.

TimG

 

[Alan1]

Mny thnks for responses. I should have recognised it, and failed miserably! Alan1

 

[Alan1]

And it is completely inert, probably straight from the manufacturer before filling. A.