NOSE FUZE No.711 (??) who can give me any info?!

[Mrfuze]

Hello all,
This fuze I got recently from a collector friend.
The body is marked with : " 711/ I.N. I.C.C. SR 9 /43 and the arrow. The aluminum base assembly is marked with " 717/MK I N TGSR 5/45 LOT 11 ". It seems that the base assembly belongs to the fuze due to interior set-up with the rest of the body. I can't excess the upper internal parts of the fuze but it seems to have some sort of electrical/electronical compounds.
I have never seen this fuze before, and the functionings are not clear to me. The only docs I found REGARDING A nO.711 fuze are from the UK fuze listings, where it states that the No.711(X2) is " a continuosly adjustable resistor condenser time fuze ", which could be the case wit h this one!
I would like to know where it was used for also. If anybody has an idea, please let me know!
Thanks
Mrfuze, USA

 

[Bonnex]

The No 711 fuze was set by a contact wire at the muzzle of gun sweeping across the fuze as it left the muzzle. The capacitor would be charged to a voltage that would give the required time delay (from 1 to 7 seconds). Development of the No 711 ceased in 1946 since the Radio Proximity fuze was by then well established.

The No 717 (Shoenberg) fuze was also a resistor-condenser (capacitor) fuze. It was designed in 1941 by Dr David Shoenberg of the Royal Society Mond Laboratory at Cambridge University. Time range was 1 to 30 seconds and it was intended to use the fuze in conjunction with VT fuzes. Prototypes were ready in August 1944 and production stopped in October 1945. Both the 711 and the 717 fuzes were for the Navy.

From the marking you have the 717 was made by The Gramophone Company, Springfield Road, Hayes Middlesex (TGSR). Possibly the 711 was made there too. The Gramophone Company was a trading name of EMI Electronics so fuzes with electrical/electronic were well within their scope. They ran the Springfield Road factory on behalf of the Ministry of Supply. The first proximity fuzes were made there and samples shipped over to the USA by the 'Tizard Committee' early in the war.

 

[Mrfuze]

Thanks!!

Thank you very much for the detailed explanation of this fuze.
Mrfuze,USA

 

[Bonnex]

Fuze No 717

Herewith a drawing showing the gaine unit albeit rather feintly.

 

[TimG]

Norman,

Was it definitely David and not his father Isaac? The former seems to have spent his life working on superconductivity, whereas the latter was heavily involved in electronics relating to television - he also worked for EMI retiring as a director in 1963. Are these fuzes the same concept as the Rhlemann artillery fuzes?

Thanks

Tim

 

[Bonnex]

Norman,

Was it definitely David and not his father Isaac? The former seems to have spent his life working on superconductivity, whereas the latter was heavily involved in electronics relating to television - he also worked for EMI retiring as a director in 1963. Are these fuzes the same concept as the Rhlemann artillery fuzes?

Tim,

Isaac Shoenberg (and Alan Blumlein) were heroes of mine when I worked at EMI as a budding electronics engineer (from 1965) and I do believe it was Isaac's son David, whilst working at the Mond Laboratory, who devised this ECR fuze and the 713 3-inch Rocket fuze. I'm not sure how close the designs are to Ruhlmann's work because I am only familiar with his bomb fuzes. I'll have to do a bit of swatting!

 

[Bonnex]

Fuze 713

This is the Shoenberg fuze/pistol for the 3-inch Rocket. The case is Bakelite and steel and the two aluminium bands are contacts for the charging of the capacitor which would done as the rocket left the projector.

 

[Mrfuze]

So now I have seen the lower part of the No.717 fuze in this drawing, which is also attached on my No.717 fuze- does anybody has a picture or drawing of the lower part which belongs in the No.711 fuze or is this part the same on both fuzes?
Mrfuze, USA?

 

[Mrfuze]

I mean which is attached on my No.711 fuze , NOT No.717!!!

 

[Bonnex]

I mean which is attached on my No.711 fuze , NOT No.717!!!

Not sure that much can be derived from this drawing