wood fuse with a cloth washer

[divedigger]

this is all that remains of a wood fuse that apparently had cloth wrapped around it as a shim. Came from a 10" ball

[emike123]

Neat.  I have a couple wood time fuse adaptered shells with that kind of stuff and always thought it was "tow"

[divedigger]

the only tow I've seen went in the fuse adapter, this was on the outside between the fuse and the shell

[emike123]

Here is an admittedly fuzzy photo of a 10pdr Read shell.  I got this one from forumite Terry Waxham who I'd love to hear from.  Hard to tell but the cloth is outside the wood adapter as you say.  Could it be they put cloth "ribbon" in there to facilitate extraction of the wood adapter?  Those wood adapters have a nasty habit of sticking in the fuse hole.

[divedigger]

maybe, but this one seems to be a strip around the top portion of the fuse,maybe to close gaps so as not to have detonation in the gun from flames leaking past the fuse. The shell had remnants of the cloth all the way around the top of the fuse hole but this is all that survived. Plus the cloth would give a little grip so the fuse wouldn't move any

[pipedreamer65]

That's really cool.  I'd think it was used as a "shim" since wood expands and contracts with moisture.  Thanks!

[divedigger]

 a 30lb Parrott with a leather washer in place. I'm thinking the cloth with the wood fuse was serving the same purpose as the leather washer in the Parrott, to keep flame out during the firing of the shell

[divedigger]

tow in place in a 2.25 Harding and tow that came out of a 2.25 Harding