Fuze

“ If we consider all the operations necessary to the action of the fuze, only certain time fuzes can be considered simple. Concussion fuzes usually depend for their action upon some operation which takes place between the discharge and the time of impact, which bestows a character of sensitiveness which would, if existing at the time of loading, make them too dangerous to handle. ”

“ This consists of finely broken rock, dry clay or other comminuted material, carefully compacted by the tamping bar on top of the charge. The fuze is a cord, having in the centre a core of gunpowder, enclosed in several layers of linen or hemp waterproofed covering. It is ignited by the miner’s candle or lamp, or by a candle end so placed at the mouth of the hole that the flame must burn its way through the fuze covering. As the fuze burns slowly, at the rate of 2 or 3 ft. per minute, the miner uses a sufficient length to allow him to reach a place of safety. ”

“ SHELLS, in gunnery, are hollow iron balls to throw out of mortars or howitzers with a fuze hole of about an inch diameter, to load them with powder, and to receive the fuze: the bottom, or part opposite the fuze, is made heavier than the rest, that the fuze may fall uppermost; but in small elevations this is not always the case, nor is it necessary; for, let it fall as it will, the fuze sets fire to the powder within, which bursts the shell, and causes great devastation. The shells had much better be made of an equal thickness, for then they burst into more pieces. ”

“ These shells were made 2 1/2 diameters in length, and from the point nearly one diameter more; they were of solid metal, not only to give strength, but to preserve direction, in their flight: as the fuze was now necessarily next the charge of the gun, great precaution was requisite to prevent accident; this has been effectually done by the head of the fuze being let into a stout wad of cork, with a small perforation, to admit strands of quick match crossing, and to pass through the head of the fuze in the centre. ”

“ There is no fuze, the explosion resulting from the heat generated by the impact, and the crushing in of the thin cap which closes the mouth of the powder-chamber. The sides and bottom of the shell being thick enough to resist crushing by the impact, and also to resist the explosive force of the bursting charge, its effect will, after penetration, be expended on the backing of the armor, or the decks which the armor is intended to screen. ”

“ The fuze-stock may generally be safely unscrewed with the fuze-wrench, taking care, in the first place, to strike the side of the shell gently with a wooden mallet, to detach the powder from the fuze, to work very slowly, and not to endeavor to overcome any unusual resistance. ”

“ A species of artificial firework which is made in the shape of a fuze, and is used for various purposes. The composition of the lance a feu consists of 3 parts of the best refined saltpetre, 2 parts of flour of sulphur, and 2 of antimony; the whole being pounded and mixed together. The chief use of the lance a feu is to throw occasional light across the platform, whilst artificial fireworks are preparing. They likewise serve to set fire to fuzes, as they can be taken hold of without danger. ”

“ Having wasted about twenty or thirty round-shot without effect, they brought a couple of mortars, with a howitzer or two, to bear upon us, from which they threw shell after shell among our ranks. But from the effects of the [Pg 322] cannonade the nature of the soil secured us, the shells either burying themselves in the sand to the extinction of the fuze, or exploding when we were all snugly laid flat, and therefore safe from their fragments. ”

“ Principle of operation.—We have just learned something of the force of inertia in connection with a projectile. Most fuzes are actuated by this force. From our knowledge of the trajectory we know that usually a projectile does not strike on its nose. Therefore we cannot devise our fuzes to work like the driving of a nail into a board. The striking element is the anvil and is a fixed pointed spur against which a sliding element containing a fulminate strikes. ”

“ Fuze Setter. A device used to set time fuzes in such a manner that shrapnel or shell will burst at or near the desired height in air.
Gun. A metallic tube from which projectiles are hurled by gases generated from the ignited powder. In general, all fire arms; but in Field Artillery terms, comparatively long-barreled weapons using relatively high muzzle velocity in contra-distinction to the howitzers and mortars.
Howitzer. A weapon which differs from a gun in that for the same caliber it uses a shorter tube, lower muzzle velocity and generally a more curved trajectory. ”

“ To Ned, Bob, and Jerry, as well as to other soldiers who had taken part in the Great War, the word “fuse” referred to but one thing, and that was the explosion which usually followed the lighting of it. The lads were familiar with many kind of fuses, from the ordinary time one, the most common form of which is the fizzing string attached to a firecracker, to the complicated fuses in the big shells. These may be set to explode the shell at any height, or at any time desired. ”

“ Among bleak hills of mounded slag they walked,
'Neath sullen evening skies that seemed to sag
O'er-burdened by the belching smoke, and lie
Upon their aching foreheads, dense and dank,
Till both felt youth within them fail and flag--
Even as the flame which shot a fiery rag
A fluttering moment through the murky sky
Above the black blast-furnaces, then sank
Again beneath the iron bell close-bound--
And it was all that they could do to drag
Themselves along, 'neath that dead-weight of smoke,
Over the cinder-blasted, barren ground. ”

“ We had tons and tons of the bark piled in a barren rocky valley where it would be safe from firing the bush or jungle. We are always terrified of bush-fires here—our world is not large, you know. I set the pile off with a live ember which I carried on a slate. Then I sprang back behind a rock bluff to defend my eyes. The explosion was terrific and the smoke kept us all coughing for days before it finally cleared away. ”

“ Long arms reached out through it; horrors crawled along under the dark. And several sets of teeth chattered and clicked out there on the sand-bar.
The long, rising, screaming shrill of a policeman’s whistle shot through the fog like a bullet—or explosion—with the sting of a freezing gale. ”

“ As a part of the night’s irony the firemen were blistered by both fire and frost. While cold gales bit their necks and backs, and the wet streets congealed their feet to mere hobbles, the blast from the flames blistered their cheeks.
Everywhere the pavements squirmed with black snakes of hose, limp and empty; for the hydrants were frozen, the cisterns sucked dry. In the face of such fire, little new fires had to be started around the hydrants to thaw them out, but when the water came it turned to ice in the hose as the chilled engines refused to work. ”

“ Swaling-time had come, red patches of fire flickered every night on Dartmoor, and the furze-prickles crackled in the flames. The annual war between man and the prickly shrub was being waged, and the atmosphere was always clouded and tainted with bitter smoke. Every one seemed to be infected with the idea of furze destruction, from the granite-cracker who as he went to his labours would push the match with which he had just lighted his pipe into some thick brake, to the small boys who begged or stole boxes of matches and went out after dark to make the moor fiery. ”

“ Suddenly I thought of my fusee-box, and I believe shouted as I thought of it, for a second idea came into my head. Suppose I struck the fusees about one a minute, they would not only help me through the darkness, but, luck willing, they might answer the purpose of a revolving light, and guide those who were looking for me to my place of shelter, or the light might be seen at the convent, from which I knew by the guide we were not far when I stopped to upset the rock. ”

“ La Bijou leaped and shot ahead, and the water, slipping away underneath, kept her always in one place. Now they surged out from the fissure, now in; ahead for half a yard, then back again; and the fissure mocked their toil.
Five minutes, each of which sounded a separate eternity, and the fissure was past. Ten minutes, and it was a hundred feet astern. Dip and lift, dip and lift, till sky and earth and river were blotted out, and consciousness dwindled to a thin line,—a streak of foam, fringed on the one hand with sneering rock, on the other with snarling water. ”

“ After that lads and lasses stand on opposite sides of the fire and look at one another through the wreaths to see whether they will be true to each other and marry within the year. Also the girls throw the wreaths across the flames to the men, and woe to the awkward swain who fails to catch the wreath thrown him by his sweetheart. When the blaze has died down, each couple takes hands and leaps thrice across the fire. He or she who does so will be free from ague throughout the year, and the flax will grow as high as the young folks leap. ”

“ They were about to take up a position on either side of the road and wait; when, without any warning, a tremendous volley is poured into them; and all the bush is alive with dark shapes—hundreds and hundreds of them—darting from cover to cover, yelling and brandishing their assegais as they advance nearer and nearer, while a constant fire is kept up by those in front. ”

“ Fuses are made of wood turned in the form of a truncated cone, in order to enter fairly into the eye of the shell. They are perforated through the middle, in the direction of the axis, so as to receive the composition. This channel is called the light of the fuse. The wood that is employed, should be strong, dry, sound, and without knots. The best kinds are the oak, the elm, and the linden. They are filled with a slow combustible composition. The materials are increased or diminished according to the nature of their application. Fuses are sometimes made of copper. ”

“ And Fuzzy, returning at that moment, wondered why every one scolded.
When the Ranger came in with the pack train, young Bucky’s muzzle was white with flour and his sides puffed out amazingly. “Here’s the culprit,” he sang out. “Trust a burro for raiding camp every chance he gets. Nothing but a donkey could pull through after a spree like what he’s been on.” ”

“ He is contrasted by the slender elegance of a half averted youth, who, though eagerly buckling the armour to his thigh, methodizes haste; [154] another swings the high-raised hauberk on his shoulder, whilst one who seems a leader, mindless of dress, ready for combat, and with brandished spear, overturns a third, who crouched to grasp a weapon—one naked himself, buckles on the mail of his companion, and he, turned toward the enemy, seems to stamp impatiently the ground.—Experience and rage, old vigour, young velocity, expanded or contracted, vie in exertions of energy. ”

“ Their first act was to set fire to the malt house which was at the east, then to straw, and grain, and hay stacks which were at the north and east, and at last to the cow house, stable, and long fish press which were at the west of my house. These being of very combustible materials, in less than half an hour we were encompassed with flames on every side but one, and by reason of the fire and smoke between us and them, we were unable to see any of our enemies, and our lungs were dreadfully oppressed by the smoke which found its way in at every crevice. ”

“ As children, many of us have played with it; some of us have seen an outbreak of fire. First a small tongue-like flame appears; it grows into a devastating fury of heat. We out here in the field have seen more than enough of it. ”

“ Blinded by smoke and flame, made frantic by the red death that was sweeping the forest, confused, terror-stricken, weakened by gas and fumes, the poor beasts had finally crowded together and perished under the onrushing wave of fire. ”

“ Thus we had replaced the gallant few still lingering on the crest, and received that withering fire which nothing could withstand by throwing ourselves flat in a slight hollow of ground within pistol shot of the enemy’s works, and mingled with the dead and dying that strewed the field, we returned the fire till it reddened into night, and at last fell away through darkness and silence. ”

“ On the sides of the mountain opposite, the lights from the firing flashed like lightnings, illuminating now an old oak, the dark outline of a rock, now a cluster of furze bushes, and groups of men going and coming as in the midst of a fire. ”

“ For answer naughty Enid held up the hissing fusee in a kind of daring triumph, but as she raised her head her long curly hair, which was floating loose, brushed against the burning spark, and in an instant blazed up, setting fire also to the sleeve of her thin lawn blouse. With a wild [208] shriek she dropped the fusee, and, springing from her seat, would have tried in her terror to rush from the room had she not been prevented by Miss Rowe, who, with admirable presence of mind, seized the duster from the blackboard, and with only that and her bare hands succeeded in stifling the flames. ”

“ The Ranger made him a bed on the top of the pack that the burro carried, and tied him so that he couldn’t get down,—and there he was shortly snoozing, while the June sun dried his fur, and the trail climbed higher and higher. Life had taken a new turn for young Fuzzy-Wuzz. ”

“ The perfect foam of the river, after its descent, and the ever-varying shapes of mist, rising up, to become clouds in the sky, would be the very picture of confusion, were it merely transient, like the rage of a tempest. But when the beholder has stood awhile, and perceives no lull in the storm, and considers that the vapor and the foam are as everlasting as the rocks which produce them, all this turmoil assumes a sort of calmness. It soothes, while it awes the mind.
Leaning over the cliff, I saw the guide conducting two adventurers behind the falls. ”