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Mills 36 1917

Millsman

Millsman

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
I bought this in the form of a moneybox, where a slot had been cut under the filler screw.

It seemed a good opportunity to make a sectioned grenade. When I enlarged the slot into a large opening it was clear there were air bubbles in the casting. All the Mills specifications to manufacturers states bodies 'must be free from blowholes and flaws', so perhaps this was part of a batch of grenades that failed inspection. A % of bodies in each batch would be sawn up to check for the uniform thickness of the casting and to look for flaws and blowholes.

You can see the holes on the right hand side of the opening.

SSCN3896.JPG
 
Is that a JMD&S (Doughty and Son) casing? I only recollect having seen grenade casings made by that company as either money boxes or table lighters. or as part of a lamp.
 
Snufkin said:
Is that a JMD&S (Doughty and Son) casing? I only recollect having seen grenade casings made by that company as either money boxes or table lighters. or as part of a lamp.
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100% correct. It's actually a very nice body (shield on back) and came with the matching lever but a TA&S baseplug.
 
I've just checked and I have another JDM&S moneybox. This one has the slot cut between the filler screw and the shoulders. I wonder if the workers had a sideline going with reject castings?
 
Millsman said:
I've just checked and I have another JDM&S moneybox. This one has the slot cut between the filler screw and the shoulders. I wonder if the workers had a sideline going with reject castings?
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I have a JMD&S money box of that pattern, and it seems to be quite common. The other relatively abundant JMD&S grenade novelty is the table lighter, where the only modification is the striker hole enlarged and threaded to take a wick holder - I have the Registered Design paper for it, so maybe I'll add that to this thread later.

These novelties were sanctioned for sale during the war, presumably from reject castings authorised to be sold to third parties for the purpose of conversion. Like many grenade makers, Doughty and Son was a controlled establishment, and if workers pilfered items they faced severe punishment - heavy fines are recorded for workers taking what was Ministry property. That said Doughty and Son do seem to have supplied more grenades to the novelty market than any other firm.
 
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