Pencil detonators

[HenrikKH]

I believe these were send to Danish resistance during WW2.

Any idea of the timer delay? The "white" safety? must be the code...

Henrik

[HenrikKH]

Last

[seebee1]

The white tab indicates the length of delay. My British reference is not to hand, however I think it is the same as those used by the American OSS. The delay was 1 hour and 20 minutes at 77 degrees F. but the delay was seventeen and one half hours at zero degrees F. and only twenty minutes at 125 degrees F. In practice however I wonder if they were really as accurate as the times stated. Regards, Clive.

[Freudendal]

marking

Hi,
Black =10 min.
Red = 30 min.
White = 2 hours
Green = 6 hours
yellow = 20 hours
Blue = 30 hours
These informations is taken from a danish police manual from the war.
Regards
Rasmus

[HenrikKH]

Hi

Thank you very much Nice to know what I have here.

Henrik

[peter monahan]

Henrik

Are these detonators still 'lice' or have they been deactivated? I ask because almost all explosives become increasingly unstable with age. I worked with mining explosives in my youth and have some acquaintance with military explosives too and the thought of somebody handling 60 year old detonators scares the S*** out of me!

You might want to consider having these dealt with by an expert - lovely relics but, in the worst case scenario, not worth losing a hand or dying for!

Peter

[seebee1]

You make a good point Peter, I often wonder if the Time Pencils we see at various Arms fairs are in fact inert. I heard some years back at a reunion held at the WW2 OSS Training base at Brockhall of an American who blew off several fingers whilst fooling with Time Pencils. How true this was I can not say, but from then onward I always held these items in far more regard and respect. Just wonder if any forum member has knowledge or experience of what Time pencils are capable of?

[GCR817]

The time pencils themselves are pretty safe. The only explosive within the pencil itself is a primer, similar to that on rifle cartridge. It is "fired" when the pencil is crushed, which breaks an ampoule of acid contained within the body which dissolved a thin spring loaded wire. When the wire snaps, a striker hits the primer which goes off. You have to place a blasting cap in the end of the pencil to really have much risk or effect.

[GCR817]

Time Pencil Diagrams

How they work...

[GCR817]

A sectioned pencil and one with a blasting cap

More info. Pics from the net.

[Jean-Loup]

These things are really interesting, and I am happy to find out they are safe to own.
Former partisans were telling me about these several times. How were you supposed to crush the glass ampule in action. With your teeth like in the movies?

JL

[FABBOND]

re pencils n°10

Hi,

thanks for this interesting news about detonators.

I post an oss pencils table's pic:



We can see that time depends temperature.

FAB

[peter monahan]

These things are really interesting, and I am happy to find out they are safe to own.

JL

Me too! I was thinking of them as if they were more like blasing caps, which will remove not only fingers but eyes and other sensitive bits if they go wrong.

Is Seebee has it right, then these are nasty too. Does anybody have first hand experience with time pencils?

Peter