Number 119 fuze question

[Burney Davis]

I'm interested in the markings on this fuze. It is marked

119 B IV M SMS 4/AA

Does anyone know the significance of the 'M' after the mark number?

I originally thought after a glance at the fuze that the date was 4/44, but as can be seen from the picture, the last two digits are not numbers but the letter 'A'. Again, any thoughts on this?

TIA.

 

[TimG]

An 'M' after the Mark of the fuze denotes a modification of the original design.

SMS - Smith Meters, Streatham (note - Smith not Smith's etc.) An interesting company that made gas meters, gas fires etc., etc. They had the skills and equipment to undertake most engineering processes and apparently undertook manufacture of experimental items for Woolwich.

4AA - This is the 'Empty Lot Number' a practice introduced early in WWII. The number denotes the year, thus 4 denotes 1944. The letters denote the Lot, running from 'AA' to 'ZZ' (I believe 'I' & 'O' weren't utilised). Thus 'AA' denotes the first Lot of that year.

TimG

 

[Burney Davis]

An 'M' after the Mark of the fuze denotes a modification of the original design.

SMS - Smith Meters, Streatham (note - Smith not Smith's etc.) An interesting company that made gas meters, gas fires etc., etc. They had the skills and equipment to undertake most engineering processes and apparently undertook manufacture of experimental items for Woolwich.

4AA - This is the 'Empty Lot Number' a practice introduced early in WWII. The number denotes the year, thus 4 denotes 1944. The letters denote the Lot, running from 'AA' to 'ZZ' (I believe 'I' & 'O' weren't utilised). Thus 'AA' denotes the first Lot of that year.

TimG

Fantastic info Tim, many thanks

Do you know what the logic was using that coding rather than a straightforward date and lot number? And how long was it used for?

Cheers

 

[TimG]

The practice ended at the end of the war.

I should have added -
Letters AA represent Lots 1 - 10
Letters AB represent Lots 11 - 20, etc.
And it was the letter 'I' was not used.

I think that the practice was adopted due to the shear volume of fuzes (the system also used on primers) going through the factories. To keep the Lot No. a sensible value, some form of coding system was necessary.

TimG