WW1 BRITISH BATTYE BOMB, 1915

In late 1914 and early 1915 Captain B C Battye of the Royal Engineers designed and put in to production through the Bethune Ironworks his 'Battye' or 'Bethune' bomb.
The Battye Bomb, consisted of a cast iron mug shaped container diced for fragmentation filled with 40 grammes of high explosive. The top of the container was sealed with a wood stopper and wax with a Bickford fuze . A Nobel safety device was used to light the fuze but, as a safety measure, this was only inserted at the time of use.
William Bickford invented the safety fuse for igniting gunpowder, an invention that saved many lives. There were many miners killed by misuse of gunpowder. Early fuses were often tubes of reeds filled with powder and were unreliable. Either they exploded too early not giving miners time to get away, or took too long to ignite and killed miners who assumed the fuse had gone out. William Bickford was born in Ashburton, Devon in January 1774. He moved to Truro as a currier, preparing leather. He then moved on to Tuckingmill near Camborne in the Cornwall mining area.

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• Capt B C Battye, designer of this item, went on to have an illustrious career in India (where he was born in 1888). He was the driving force behind the Shanan hydro power station, opened in 1929, which still serves Punjab. In post-Independence India, he is still garlanded as the inspiration behind the project. He was killed in 1932 in what locals describe as a suspicious motor cycle accident, putting to an end plans for similar schemes.
  .......... Matthew Shaw, Maidenhead, 18th of March 2024
  
  

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