Polish Soviet 10h deley electric fuze/detonator AL-1

[marek_wawa]

Hello guys, I need your help.
I have came by a very unusuall item that I do not have almost any information about. To be specific I have two of them and one will probably be sold later.
This is a Polish made 10h deley electric fuze. Looks like an alarm clock, because it kind of is it is called AL-1, at least that is what is written on the document that was with it.
I am looking for any more information, schemes, drawings etc. This was probably a copy of a soviet desighn, information about that would also be useful.
It was manufactured in Poland, in the city of Łódź by MERA-POLTIK. The document is from 1977 but it is only a proof of a warranty check that sais that the 10h is really deley is 9h and 57min

Thanks!

 

[marek_wawa]

Hello guys, I need your help.
I have came by a very unusuall item that I do not have almost any information about. To be specific I have two of them and one will probably be sold later.
This is a Polish made 10h deley electric fuze. Looks like an alarm clock, because it kind of is it is called AL-1, at least that is what is written on the document that was with it.
I am looking for any more information, schemes, drawings etc. This was probably a copy of a soviet desighn, information about that would also be useful.
It was manufactured in Poland, in the city of Łódź by MERA-POLTIK. The document is from 1977 but it is only a proof of a warranty check that sais that the 10h is really deley is 9h and 57min

Thanks!

 

[marek_wawa]

Mystery solved.
This is a Polish made time detonator. It originated from a Soviet desight from the 40's.
The Polish ones were manufactured in the city of Łódź in a factory called MERA-POLTIK that specialised in alarm clocks. It could be set to 12h.

 

[wingsofwrath]

Mystery solved.
This is a Polish made time detonator. It originated from a Soviet desight from the 40's.
The Polish ones were manufactured in the city of Łódź in a factory called MERA-POLTIK that specialised in alarm clocks. It could be set to 12h.

The funniest thing about this is the clock face itself is identical to some chess clocks made by the same company.
Now I'm imagining what happens if you accidentally get the wrong clock for your chess tournament...

 

[marek_wawa]

Yes, this was really an alarm clock modell modified for the military purposes. The one you have posted was a chess clock made by that company
This is an alarm clock made by them.

 

[marek_wawa]

Ok guys. Now I know a bit more
This is a Polish-manufactured sapper time delay device, referred to in the specification as the "Clock Timer - Alarm Clock" or sometimes called the AL-1 model. The AL-1 name appears only a few times on the control cards, it os not mentioned anywhere else.

The manufacturer of this device was the Łódź Clock Factory Poltik, later known as Mera-Polltik. This type of clock was produced at the end of the 1940s and the early 1950s. Subsequently, the clocks were inspected and maintained at regular intervals in the production facility, as evidenced by the attached control card and calibration card from the 1970s.

This mechanism was used for military purposes, specifically for delaying certain explosive reactions. The delay time could be up to 12 hours. The concept and design of this type of mechanism originated in Russia in the 1940s. Below, among the photos, I am attaching an example page from an old WWII-era sapper manual showing a nearly identical solution, as well as a page from an inaccessible 1980s manual.

Instead of a traditional alarm mechanism, a switch was used — a sort of timer that initiated a specific reaction. The same clock mechanisms were used in chess clocks produced in the 1950s and in alarm clocks. This is a modified version of the B-80 alarm clock mechanism (produced by the Łódź Clock Factory).

Information about this device is extremely hard to find, as it was not a widely available or known mechanism. It was specifically intended to be used by special units for sabotage actions behind enemy lines.

The clocks were only produced at the end of the 1940s and the early 1950s. In the 1990s, they were withdrawn from service and scrapped due to their lack of practical use on the modern battlefield.

I have added it to the cat-uxo catalogue - https://cat-uxo.com/explosive-hazards/firing-devices/chz-b-firing-device

Marek