Fuse setting machine
Ignition setting machines are devices with which time detonators are set automatically.
After the introduction of rapid-fire guns , it was often believed that it was no longer possible to set the detonators by hand, as it was assumed that the speed with which this work had to be carried out in rapid-fire because of the high ammunition consumption would impair the accuracy and uniformity of the setting .
As a result, many artilleries, primarily the French, introduced special machines, usually attached to the inside of the ammunition wagon's hinged door so that the operator in the firing position is covered by the armor plates of the ammunition wagon standing next to the gun.
The fuse setting machines are set up for tempering a single and also for simultaneous tempering of two or more detonators. Their construction principle is generally unchanged for all versions. Outside there is a graduated disk that can be adjusted according to the selected distance or focal length. The setting is transferred to the mechanism in such a way that, when the cartridge is inserted, the gear train can only be set in rotation up to the point at which the setting of the detonator corresponds to the setting of the index disc. The cartridges are placed in any position with the bullet point in the appropriate bearings of the machine, whereupon the crank that sets the gear train in motion is turned. During the rotation, a resilient nose snaps into a recess of the sentence piece to be rotated, whereupon the sentence piece participates in the rotation of the gear train with the cartridge stationary until the templation is completed. The difficulty of the construction lies in the gear train, the scope of which is an inevitable source of error. Completely consistent temposing of all detonators cannot be achieved with the detonator setting machine, rather deviations must be expected, according to a description in Meyers Konversationslexikon from 1909 up to +25 m. As a result, some states have decided not to introduce it.