S & B 23 on a Mills Cup - Please decode

[RegPitt]

Can anyone decode this Mills Bomb Cup discharger?

 

[gothica7]

Hi Reg,

could be Siemens Bros? I have S&B on one lug and JM on the other so ime more than likely wrong. On the other side its 26 and SA14T
Otherwise havnt a clue.

Andy

 

[Bonnex]

It is Smith & Burn after the inventors.

 

[gothica7]

Hi Norman,

thank you very much for that information, i wonder why we call them 'Burn's' Cups when in fact they should be Smith & Burn's cups.
Ile use that nomenclature in future.

Andy

 

[Bonnex]

Well its probably a complicated story which I won't attempt here. Sgt Major Burn had already designed a grenade gun weighing just 20 lbs capable of firing a Mills 450 yards so in all honesty he was probably the inventive force behind the British cup discharger. Some would say that Capt Godwin-Smith was given credit just because Burn worked for him! It is often referred to as the S&B cup in Munitions Inventions Department papers but I think (not having the patent to hand) that Burn was awarded the patent. The Experimental Section in France had a hand in it too, or at least the gas port, but Smith was very dismissive of their contribution if I remember correctly. Of course the idea of a cup to discharge grenades was not new.

 

[gothica7]

Thank you once again Norman,

fascinating information, ide love to read more about it, maybe one day.

Andy