The spanner wrench for screwing in time fuse adapters seems like an idea begging for simplification. As the war progressed, folks at what I have always heard was the Selma Arsenal started casting the common copper time fuse adapter with a slot instead of spanner wrench holes. Prior to that, soldiers being soldiers and preferring the practical to the theoretical, had taken matters into their own hands and cut slots when presumably the tines to their wrenches had broken or they had lost them. Here are a couple of 12pdrs that show these. the one on the left is from the Battle of Nashville.
