Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/209

 Popular Science Monthly

���through connecting sticks of black powder in the fuse body. The magazine connects with the powder pocket at the center of the base, from which the flash is trans- mitted to the powder tube in a shrapnel or to the corresponding "gaine" in the high-explosive shell, which, in turn, delivers to the main explosive charge of the projectile.

The passage of the initial flash

��from the detonator to the powder pocket in the base of the time fuse is varied in length by adjustment of the time ring, and the length of the powder train which has to be consumed before reaching the top of the powder tube or "gaine" controls the instant at which a shrap- nel will "break" or a high-explosive shell will be shattered. The adjustment of the time ring simply shortens the passage by establishing short cuts between the powder channels or increasing the distance between points of communication.

Should, by any mischance, the time fuse element fail to work, the projectile will then break on coming in contact with a rigid object, through the action of the auxiliary detonating element of the device.

In the base of the mechanism is a second detonator which is held in place both by a stirrup similar to the one which holds the time pellet behind the cap and the body of the fuse and also by a coiled spring between the holder of the detonator fuse needle and the percussion pellet. On the projec- tile striking a firm object, the percus- sion pellet with its detonator is thrown violently forward against the de- tonator fuse needle and the resulting flash is transmitted immediately to the powder tube or to the "gaine," as the case may be, — thus avoiding the circum- scribing powder trains through which

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�� ��Shrapnel with its rain of balls, and high-explosive shells with their burst of jagged shell fragments

��the flash produced from the contact of the time detonator and the fuse needle must pass.

Destructive as is the time fuse when fitted to a projectile which leaves a gun, it is comparatively harmless under ordinary conditions, on account of the rigidity of the stirrup holding the time pellet and of the springs holding the percussion pellet.

��EVERY autoist will appreciate funnel, invented by Walter W.

��Filling Up Your Automobile Tank Without Spilling the Gasoline

this Er- rington of Texas. It is an ordinary funnel soldered to a plug which fits snugly in the tank opening. The air valve, through which the air in the tank escapes when the gasoline is poured in is attached to this plug, the valve stem and spring serving as the funnel handle. When the gasoline reaches the mouth of the spout, you simply release your pressure on the spring to let it close the valve. Immediately the flow of "gas" into the tank is stopped because of the air pressure. So you fill up the funnel and then reopen the air valve. All this can. be done in about twenty seconds.

����With this funnel the autoist can fill the tank of his automobile with gasoline in less than half a minute

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