What's new
British Ordnance Collectors Network

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

found a chrome mills base plug at work ????

spotter

UBIQUE
Staff member
Premium Member
This chromed mills base plug was found at work,in the same area weve found the base plug removal tools,
markings as you can see are pretty bad C/A the only ones i can see .
what do you think bored armourers making trench art ???
 

Attachments

  • P1000924.jpg
    P1000924.jpg
    88.1 KB · Views: 68
  • P1000927.jpg
    P1000927.jpg
    62 KB · Views: 47
  • P1000923.jpg
    P1000923.jpg
    92.4 KB · Views: 44
Hi Al,

chromed or nickel plated grens were often used as 'drill' or training grens during WW1 and all parts were so plated including base plugs.
C/A could be Callenders Abbotts Foundry Co Ltd, Glasgow [thanks Norman]. I believe they used C/A as their mark.
Nice plug though Al, well worth keeping.

Andy
 
All the C/A plugs I've seen dated from the early part of the war. I'm not sure they produced all through WW2.

John
 
Callendar Abbots

Both Callendar Iron Co. Ltd, Falkirk and Abbot's Foundry Co., Falkirk supplied material for the war effort in WW1. They amalgamated in 1933 to form Callendar Abbots Iron Co. Ltd.

Callendar Abbots supplied 1,990,000 No.36 MkI between February 1940 and June 1945. From the beginning of 1943 they were one of a dozen companies selected for continuous production contracts (supplying 1,625,000 in 11 sequential batches). These figures do not include reject bodies sent to another contractor to be turned into practice and drill grenades.

Base plugs were supplied both in cast iron and mazak. CI base plugs could be rustproofed in a variety of ways, of which electroplating was one method.

Question is, is C/A (rather than plain CA) the maker's mark for Callendar Abbots? Body castings with C/A are sufficiently common to support the view that it is, and the "/" may be indicative of the Foundry having two distinct ancestors.

Anyone any other thoughts as to why C/A, or to whom else it may refer?



Tom.
 
Thanks for the information Tom. C/A have always been a mystery to me (Not that I've lost any sleep). I've had one of their grenades for a few years and a spare plug too. The grenade came with a cast iron plug without a date - just like Spotters, so I was unsure whether it was WW1 or WW2. Photo attached.

John
 

Attachments

  • SSCN5442.JPG
    SSCN5442.JPG
    61.7 KB · Views: 23
Last edited:
thanks for the information on this base plug,,much appreciated
spotter
 
Top