Unknown American 37mm

[Gspragge]

Has any one seen one - I suspect somebodies patented design with the
protruding base, but only made commercially and not adopted by the
military, circa 1900 ? No markings, but unmarked generic 1 pdrs were made in the 1900 era, only the casing being
marked as they came from either Winchester or UMC.
The one used as a plumb bob has either a replaced band or an unfinished band, though with
the plug present it would seem to be finished. I only know of these two.

 

[Tmine35]

I would say the band is unfinished and the shell rejected for some reason. All unfinished shells which I have seen have been with steel part finish machined before pressing and machining driving band.

 

[Gspragge]

A third example is known and the band very over polished so no markings if there were any, the other is disfigured by polishing and the third looks to be either unfinished or replaced - I think a projectile body would be rejected after or before band is put on, seems odd to reject at this point. How ever it has not been examined yet so I don't know which it is. One thought is that the extension is for a Semple Tracer unit. If so the tracer must have been longer than my 1909 example which fits into a regular body with no problem. So maybe a pre 1909 tracer was longer ? But I have no information on that at all.

One important detail is the lack of the crimp groove, thus they are unlikely to be U.S.N. or Army projectiles, back to a commercial patent -- and the unknown :tinysmile_tongue_t:

 

[Yodamaster]

This driving band let me think on a french 37mm Bethlehem !


Yoda

 

[Burney Davis]

Just to throw a bit more into the mix .....

 

[Gspragge]

What does the bottom look like ? The red on the tip is interesting --- that mark almost looks like a Broad Arrow, but is a bit odd--- the projectile looks like it was heat treated or cast -- (Chilled ?)

Yes the band would be the same as BSC and other U.S. made projectiles.

So that makes 5 of these counted so far -