Is This A Fuse?

[Valley Ranger]

Hey folks - found this piece near a battlefield here in the Shenandoah Valley, close to where my partner found another brass Hotchkiss fuse. We've also found a number of artillery shell fragments. This piece is the right size for a fuse and appears to be made of zinc. What do you think? Fuse or discarded piece of plumbing? Thanks for taking a look and any help![size=10pt][/size]

 

[duggap]

I would doubt that it is a fuse. Doesn't look thick enough. Actually looks a little like pot metal.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Sorry to say, it is definitely not a fuze. It has threading but no wrench-slots or similar other provision for screwing it tightly into a shell. That's not correct for any threaded 19th-century artillery fuze.

Also, no 19th-century artillery fuze has a long smooth area "above" the threads.

It doesn't look like zinc. Parrott fuzes are made of zinc, and your item doesn't have the corrosion-characterists we see on dug Parrott fuzes. Zinc tends to corrode to a light-grey color. Your mystery-relic looks more like pewter (whose corrosion is usually medium-to-deep grey) ...or some pewter-like alloy, or perhaps just "pot-metal" (as Duggap suggested).

 

[Valley Ranger]

Sorry to say, it is definitely not a fuze. It has threading but no wrench-slots or similar other provision for screwing it tightly into a shell. That's not correct for any threaded 19th-century artillery fuze.

Also, no 19th-century artillery fuze has a long smooth area "above" the threads.

It doesn't look like zinc. Parrott fuzes are made of zinc, and your item doesn't have the corrosion-characterists we see on dug Parrott fuzes. Zinc tends to corrode to a light-grey color. Your mystery-relic looks more like pewter (whose corrosion is usually medium-to-deep grey) ...or some pewter-like alloy, or perhaps just "pot-metal" (as Duggap suggested).

Thanks fellas. Yeah, the smooth area made it doubtful to me.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Since you only asked if it's a fuze... I didn't mention a couple of observations which may help you eventually ID the item. It has (very) fine-gauge threading -- which almost always means the item was intended to screw into some other metal object, rather than a softer material such as wood or rubber.

Also, threaded area's diameter, instead of staying the same, appears to taper down toward the end of the object. That is an uncommon characteristic. Reminds me of a keg-tap spigot's taper, but I've never seen one of those that is so thin-walled.

 

[kuger]

When I first looked at it my first impression was spigot,(TAP),but everything didnt fit?Still doesnt but I like it is along those lines