Bart, because you specifically asked me to give my thoughts about it:
1- I've never had the opportunity to examine the one in the photo, and it is the only one I knew of until Acwbullets said he knows of at least one other.
2- Speaking frankly, the claim that the one in the photo was unscrewed from the shell is surprising, because as most of us know, a non-ferrous metal threaded fuze will almost never unscrew from a dug projectile's iron threads. The ultra-rare exceptions to that rule have been shells recovered from anaerobic environments, such as underwater or in swamp-muck.
3- I'd have to say, the threads on the fuze in the photo do not look like they they came out of a shell. The threaded section of that fuze is extremely short... which would allow groundwater to get past them, wetting the shell's powder-charge, which would then tend to corrode at least the lower part of the threads (and the part of the fuze's body which was exposed to the powder inside the shell.
4- I do not think it is a previously-unknown version of Schenkl Combination fuze.
5- Speaking frankly, the photo and report about it does not convince me that the object is in actual fact a fuze. Note that the edge of the Sawyer Combination fuze is "knurled," to aid in screwing it TIGHTLY into the fuzehole. The edge of the "lip" above the threads on this object show no knurling, and it is extremely thin. The thin-ness would not seem to allow for functional spanner-wrench holes or wrench-slots. So, how was it SUFFICIENTLY tightened into the shell's fuzehole? (As y'all know, that is crucially necessary for artillery fuzes).
6- The photo indicates the threaded piece is brass, and the rest of the fuze's body is iron. The only other such arrangement in civil war fuzes is a brass Navy Watercap fuze which screwed into a large iron bushing. The first model of Schenk Percussion fuze was iron. Could this be one of that type, which is screwed into a brass adapter-bushing, because the shell's fuzehole was larger than an iron Schenkl Percussion fuze's threading? (Note, that wild guess assumes that the story about this fuze having been unscrewed from that shell is true.)
7- Probably contradicting that wild guess are two facts:
An iron Schenkl Percussion fize's body is longer than what we see on the photo.
Also, the iron Schenkl Percussion fuze was "lipless" (unlike the brass version), with the threading going all the way to the fuze's "top." No threading in that area is visible at the top of the (presumably) iron object in the photo.
Since the specimen in the photo is not available for inspection and measuring, that's about all I can say regarding it, John. We can only hope that Acwbullets is successful in his attempt to examine, measure, and photograph the other specimen he is aware of.
Regards,
Pete
