I.D. Help Needed

[callicles]

I'm new to this site. 

Let me start off by writing that I'm not as schooled or educated as most of the posters here.  I hope y'all forgive me for this and tolerate such a sophomoric question.

I need help identifying the below item.

I found a similar item last year. Back then, I was on another site, and Pete George indicated that it was a Type Two Percussion fuze.  I think this might be the same thing.

Although the pictures seem to show lead in it, I can assure you that, from the naked eye, it seems to have no lead.  However, there appears to be be a small iron needle imbedded within the tube.

I hope you guys might give me some help. 

Thanks

[Pete George]

  It is the broken-off bottom end of a Hotchkiss Type 2 Percussion fuze.  That type's "slider" (or "striker") had a small brass wire sticking through the .35"-diameter hole in the brass fuze-body's base.

  That being said, the slider/striker in the broken-off fuze you found looks like iron ...but the Hotchkiss Type 2 slider/striker is lead enclosed in a thin brass sleeve, and had a brass nipple.  Please try using a small (but strong) magnet on the exposed end of your fuze-piece's slider/striker to see whether it is iron or not.

Regards,
Pete 

[emike123]

Thanks Pete.  Welcome Callicles.  I am glad to see your registration worked the second time around!

I remember you from ARH and you had some great posts there so I look forward to them here.  I realize we have a range of expertise here but please do not let that give you or others pause in chiming in.  I can't remember ever seeing an issue here with folks doing anything other than trying to help answer any and all questions and I trust it will always be that way.  Thats the purpose of the forum so thanks for posting.

[callicles]

Firstly, thanks Pete -- as always.  Your analyses is amazing.

Secondly, thank you Emike 123.  I didn't know if this site would discourage simple questions or not.  I certainly do not want to "dumb-down" this site.  Regardless, thanks for your kind words. 

I don't know of any other site where I can trust responses.  I look forward to posting other artifacts here.

Again, thanks!

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Sir;
   Just in case you do not own Jones fuze book below is what your complete fuze would look like.
Regards,
John

[callicles]

Mr. Bartleson, thank you so much for the picture.  More importantly, thanks for taking the time to respond. It is extremely helpful in fully understanding what I've found.

Pete, my brother put a magnet to the slider/striker per your request. Without a doubt -- using his language -- the slider/stiker is iron.

What does that mean?

Also, I post below a "fuze" I found Monday.  It seems to be a time fuze of some sort.  Unfortunately, I can't put my hands on calipers.  Nonetheless, I tried to take as good pictures as I could of the artifact with a ruler.  Do any of you have an idea of what it might be? My friend seems to think it is Confederate, possibly from a 24 pdr.

Any ideas, thoughts or suggestions?

Again, thanks for the warm reception to this site!

[Pete George]

Callicles wrote:
> Pete, my brother put a magnet to the slider/striker per your request.
> Without a doubt -- using his language -- the slider/stiker is iron.
> What does that mean?

  That means it's very strange.  The brass fuze-base it is in is definitely from a Hotchkiss Type 2 Percussion fuze.  I've never heard of an iron slider/striker in that kind of Hotchkiss fuze.  Your iron slider resembles a typical Schenkl Percussion slider.  But it does appear to have a brass Hotchkiss-type "safety wire" protruding through the hole in the fuze's base.  Perhaps it is some sort off in-the-field "hybrid" concocted by an artillery crew (using a Schenkl slider in a Hotchkiss Percussion fuze-body.

> Also, I post below a "fuze" I found Monday.  It seems to be a time fuze of some sort.  [...]
> Do any of you have an idea of what it might be?

  There is no "intact" white-metal (zinc, lead, pewter, etc) timefuze adapter-plug which looks like what you found.  That being said, what you found looks like the blown-off tapered "tail" of a Parrot long-range timefuze adapter-plug.  (That version of Parrott fuze is mainly found in 20-pounder Parrott shells.)  Here's a photo showing an intact one.

Regards,
Pete

[callicles]

Pete,

Regarding the Type Two Hothckiss Fuze, thanks.  Wow!

You are familiar with where we're hunting.  As a consequence, is there at all a possibility that this could be some sort of Confederate fuze?  Do I need to send better pictures of it?

[Pete George]

  The photos you posted seem to show its base is smoothly made, and its top is ragged.  If that is accurate, it is definitely the broken-off tail of a yankee Parrott fuze.

  You asked if there is any chance of it being "Confederate."  It definitely was not Confederate-manufactured.  Could the Confederates have picked up that broken-off piece of a Parrott fuze on a previous battlefield, and used it as a timefuze adapter-plug in a wooden-fuzed shell of their own?  Theoretically, anything is possible ...but, why bother?  Wooden fuzeplugs were never in short supply.

  Also, due the the scarcity of "white metals" in the Confederacy, scavenged pieces of those metals were usually turned in to the CS Ordnance Department ...which ran advertizements in newspapers offering to trade food to civilians in exchange for salvaged non-iron metals.  A "famous" CS Ordnance Department ad offered one barrel of flour in trade for each barrel of fired bullets scavenged from battlefields.

Regards,
Pete