Artillery Tools

[6lbgun]

     The 49 manual list two lengths.  10" for field guns and 16" for siege and garrison.  I have seen much variation in the longer ones.
#2 is Stadia used to determine distance by the height of a man or a man on horseback
Dan

[6lbgun]

     I'm not real savvy at moving stuff around on the sight, but there's thread on Gimlets back in Dec. 2011
Dan

[redbob]

#12 is a "Tow Hook", now; the question is: What is tow and what was it used for?

[6lbgun]

Tow is/are strands of fibers such as hemp, flax etc. Used for packing.  1860's bubble wrap.  When ammunition was crated at the arsenals for shipping tow was used as a packing material.  It was tightly packed around the shells to prevent shifting.
Also it was used to plug the holes to wooden fuze plugs after they were set and rasped at the arsenal.  The hook on the Tow Hook was used to get the packing tow out of the shipping crate.  The claw was used to open the crate.  The hammer was used to tighten any of the strapping on the shells that might have come loose, or for anything else you may need a hammer for.
     Pictured is a hunk of hemp tow.
Dan

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[emike123]

The gimlets are not for fuses, John, they are for clearing the vent hole of friction primer remnants or other fouling.  The short, stubby ones not picturedbut that Dan references are woodworking awls and could work in the vent holes but weren't made for that purpose.  One of the long ones shown here has Watervliet Arsenal stamped in the metal shaft.

#2 is a stadia sight -- an old fashioned range finder using geometric principles.

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

I hope this plate is clear enough.
John

[alwion]

the wire type fuse/vent gimlets and the wood handled ones have always scared me to buy because they do look like wood working tools. One think immediately noticeable on these wire types is the size. All i have ever seen for sale before seem to be much smaller. were there small 4-8" wire ones?

[Bryan]

There's 2 number 5's Mike.  Maybe the cold weather has slowed you down some.

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

see a previous post on gimlets:
http://bulletandshell.com/forum/index.php?topic=281.msg1671#msg1671
Regards.
     In the U.s. I think you will find that mortar wooden time fuses were cut to required time using a saw.  Wooden time fuse adapters used preselected paper wrapped time fuses which could also be "cut" before driving into the wooden adapter.  Thery were not drilled with a gimlet or other boring tool.  I have not seen an American wooden time fuse with markings to bore on a paper sleeve used in the ACW. 
   I have only seen fuses with outside drill marks on British fuses for RBL and RML cannons. when the RML came into being a setback percussion element ignited the driven wooden time fuse but the selection of time was still by a fuse boring tool whch I have posted before.
John
P.s. The saw shown in Jones fuse book looks like nothing more than an English dove tail joint saw which has very fine and very sharp teeth. Even though it is stamped U.s. Our govennment buys open purchase, off the shelf products and labels them "Government Property".

[Dave the plumber]

I have at least two wood 't' handle gimlets that are original marked J.A.D., so we know they were used.

 

[emike123]

Am I right David that your marked t handle gimlets are the long types with this wood handle with the brass center reinforcement straps like 8 & 9 shown above?

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Hi David,
   what wooden fuse were your two gimlets used on??  JAD?
Certainly none of the implements shown on Mike's collection board were used to bore any wooden fuse.  That is what I am trying to show and not for cannon use.
Regards,
John

[CarlS]

John,

As I understand it, the first picture Mike posted that started this thread has one shown in the top right corner.  It is the only wooden handle one in that image.  Note that the boring end is tapered as you would expect for something making a fuse hole since the paper fuses are tapered.

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Carl,
Perhaps we are talking about two different functions.  The4 top right tool is a tapered reamer for learing the fuse hole in a wooden adapter.  I am referring to a auger or boring tool used to set a selected time on the side of a wooden fuse which has time increments on a paper sleeve glued to the side of a wooden time fuse. I don't recall any U.s. or C.S. wooden time fuses (not adapter) where  a selected burst time is made by boring from the outside through a side channel of quick burning powder into the main time column. see below in a British fuse.
John

[CarlS]

Sorry; you are correct in that I was not thinking what you were asking.  I have not head of any such thing other than for the British Boxer as you've displayed and it seems to me over engineered to be fast and reliable in the field.  But perhaps it did work well.