Seeing Stars

[CarlS]

Hello,

I have a nice Bormann fuse I just picked up in a group that has two stars on the fuse.  Someone asked me what the stars would indicate.  I know I probably should know this but for some reason at the moment can't recall if I ever did.  So I looked in Chuck Jones' book and while he shows a fuse with them he doesn't give any information on them.  I would assume the are an arsenal marking from some place that got a contract to makes some Bormann fuses for the government.  Anyone have any information to help me out?  Thanks in advance.

(And no Mike, I'm not going to chop it and get the fuse out!!!)

[alwion]

didn't one of the arsenals mark the insides of bullets with a star? Washington?

[Jim T]

Yes, some Federal arsenal made "star base" bullets.  No, we do not know which.  Washington arsenal was just a guess by M&M.  Dean was never able to find any information about who made them.

[CarlS]

Jim:  Good to see you reading the iron oriented threads too.  Much appreciated.

Pittsburg's Fort Pitt Foundry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Pitt_Foundry) put stars on at least some of their cannon when they made them.  I wonder if they made fuses and bullets?  I tried to find a reference that they did make fuses and bullets but to no avail.  While I have no proof I tend to think the 10-inch balls with the stars on them near the fuse hole were probably cast at Fort Pitt Foundry.  The star looks just like the one on the cannon muzzles I've seen.

[emike123]

Carl: A similar star stamp is also found on the bottom of some large caliber Brooke sabots which are thought to have come from Charleston or possibly Columbia.

[CarlS]

Mike:  Thanks.  I had forgotten about that even though I have one.  Given the history of capitalism, war contracts and greed, I'll theorize that Fort Pitt made the Brooke sabots and ran them through the blockade.