Please help to identify this fuze

[robsawitski]

Hi All,

My name is Rob and I'm new to this forum. This is my first post.

I am pretty new to collecting militaria. So far my focus has been on WWII Air Corp patches. Last weekend I came across what I think is a WWI artillery fuze based on what I could find on the Net.

If it is, that'd be very cool.

I'll attach some pics below.

It it mounted on a wooden base which has a small metal plaque attached (you'll see all the writing in the pics). I think this may have been a paperweight used by one of the employees at the Taft Peirce MFG company in Rhode Island, USA. May be it was a marketing give-away for military buyers. I don't know.

It says "Russian 21 Second...". Were we making fuzes for Russians?

Anyway, I'd love to know the history and if these items are valuable or not? I paid $3 at a garage sale and I'm sure I got a good deal.

Thanks in advance for the help, Rob

 

[Alpini]

yes, it is a russian 22 sec. artillery double action fuze produced in the U.S.A. It is for shrapnell shells for 3" (76,2mm) guns. Complete HE and shrapnel rounds for these guns were produced in hughe quantities in the USA by different companies. I also think it is a marketing give-away.

It is not extremely rare here in Europe, but even here $3 is nothing for a fuze in such nice quality!

 

[robsawitski]

Thank you for the information.

I'll have to look into what kinds of 3" guns the Russians used in WWI. I'm not up on any kind of artillery/ordnance information.

Is there a market for these items? It looks like the folks of this forum collect these. Any idea what it might be worth to a ordnance collector?