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BOOM! EIGHT CENTS TO
THE GOOD
P R A C T I C A L L Y every
time a cannon goes
"Boom !" along the battle
front in Europe,
from eight to twelve
cents goes "clink" into the pocket
of Captain Semple, U. S. A.,
retired.
It is not at all unusual to read
that in one day along a certain
front "Fifty thousand shells
were fired over a certain
area." Striking an average of ten cents
a shot in royalties, that day's battle along
only one section of the front netted
Captain Semple $5,000. A very fair
day's profit, especially when it was all a
matter of royalty on one patent alone.
This is one of the striking incidents
of the many war-made fortunes. But in
this particular instance Captain Semple
did not attempt to take advantage of war
conditions in Europe. As a matter of
fact he invented
the
little device,
which brings
him from eight
to twelve cents
every time a
cannon is fired,
long before the
war started.
This tiny dev
i c e — it is
about the size
of a hickory
nut — is a
plunger used
Reaping the Harvest
in connection
with time
fuses. It sells
for about 40 cents, and the captain
merely sits back and lets others manufacture
and sell it, while he takes the
royalties.
288
While the Krupps, Skodas, "Jack Johnsons," and other pieces of
heavy artillery keep on with their ceaseless uproar, a steady stream of
silver pieces flows into the lap of the fortunate inventor.
This interesting bit of mechanism
goes in the base of the time
fuse so that, in case the timing
The Mechanism
This little piece of brass weighs only about two
ounces, yet it is an essential feature of every
high explosive shell fired on the battlefields of
Europe.
part of the mechanism fails, the
fuse will work as soon as the
shell strikes. The ingenious part
of it is the manner in which it is
made safe until the shell is fired, so that
should a careless handler drop the shell it
would not explode and annihilate everyone
in the vicinity. When this plunger is put
in the fuse it is set at "safety", with the
firing point carefully turned down out of
the way. This pin is held down by two
little plungers, with small springs which
hold them in place and hold the firing
pin in safety. As soon as the shell starts
out of the gun it commences to revolve
rapidly. This
w h i r 1 i n g
throws the
small plungers
out by centrifugal
force and
the heavy end
of the needle
piece flies out
because of that
same natural
force. This automatically
sets
the firing pin
with the busi­
ness end out
and as soon as
the fuse strikes
anything the
whole plunger shoots forward and sets
off the percussion material. Then something
happens—the giant tri-nitro-toluol
is unleashed to do his worst.