Military or industrial, any ideas?

[Vasco Da Gama]

Pictured are 2 items (I can think of no other word to describe them) I have never seen before. They are not trench art although the tops may have been widened. For me they have electrical primers, complete on the inside and have base markings similar to a military item. The bases are huge in comparison to the main body and of considerable weight, potentially indicating a high pressure environment. The widened mouths are interesting but are not wider than the base which is common on trench art. Pictured alongside a 20x110 case for comparison. Length 128mm, base diameter 35mm, mouth diameter 28mm and width of rim 9mm. They arrived in the shop with a British Naval case, possibly a cartridge to propel something? Over to the team!

 

[HAZORD]

It would seem that the RML headstamp would indicate military equipment.

 

[kahu1]

Look like large primer tube for bag charge guns. Or high pressure candle holders!

 

[beihan62]

Maybe something to do with ejector seats ?

 

[kahu1]

Tube,Vent 1 inch. MKIV.

 

[bdgreen]

Diagram shown here: http://www.bocn.co.uk/vbforum/threa...ify-these-cartridge-cases?highlight=tube+vent

 

[Vasco Da Gama]

Many thanks gents, you learn something new each day. I am assuming that being of this size they would be used in the larger Naval weapons, 9.2in and upwards? Confirmation of usage would complete the story.

 

[HAZORD]

I'm puzzled as to why the case mouths are opened up. They couldn't form like that during firing and still be able to be extracted.

 

[Yodamaster]

Tube,Vent 1 inch. MKIV.

What do you mean with "Tube Vent" ?


Yoda

 

[kahu1]

A tube to vent the primer charge to ignite the propellant charge.

 

[Vasco Da Gama]

This is just a thought and not based on knowledge. We may be thinking in the wrong sense for loading an item of this nature. We are used to the round being loaded mouth first. For a large screw breech naval weapon the technique may be swing the breach open and load the primer into the breach base first. This could happen at the same time as the projectile and bag charge were being loaded. This would put wide mouth against the base of the bag charge. The additional surface area would be useful in getting a fast light across a major charge. I am thinking of 12 to 16in weapons. Over to the experts!

 

[bdgreen]

From Handbook on Ammunition, 1945. No flared mouth for the 1 inch vent tube. The vent tubes at the beginning of this thread with the flared mouth are most likely someone's attempt at trench art.