If you fuze, you may not lose. Tiny artillery components exhibited at the National Civil Naval Museum provide proof of ingenuity in small packages

Many Civil War artillery shells featured fuzes that were inserted into the top of the round. They increased reliability and reduced failures to detonate.

The National Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus, Ga, provides examples in an exhibit case filled with gun tools and devices. (Picket photos)

One of the artifacts came from the wreckage of the CSS Jackson (Muscogee) ironclad, which was manufactured in Columbus and set afire by Union troops when they took the city in April 1865.

A member of a salvage team that raised the wreck from the Chattahoochee River in the early 1960s kept a few items, including a fuze for one of the six Brooke rifles employed by the Jackson. The man’s daughter donated the artifact a few years ago, says museum director Brandon Gilland.

“I started working on this piece right away,” Gilland told me. The fuze was encrusted in grime.

Former curator Jeff Seymour dropped by one day and told Gilland the fuze may still be live.

“You can’t put a live fuze on display,” said Gilland who used brushes and toothpicks to disassemble the fuze and remove the black powder and paper wadding (Note: only those trained in ordnance should attempt to do this.)

The fuze would have been used for a 6.4-inch or 7-inch shell on the ironclad. Gilland says the top says “10 SEC” to describe the time of desired detonation for the shell.

Gilland said he does not know who manufactured this fuze.

Next to it is a Confederate fuze igniter, or friction primer, made by C.A. McEvoy of Richmond , Va. McEvoy invented the igniter and it went into service in 1863.

The Horse Soldier store, which sells Civil War equipment and uniforms, provided thisdescription when it sold one of the McEvoy friction primers. The item included a wood cylinder, lead weight and a wire pin.

“Instead of relying on the discharge of the artillery piece to ignite the paper time fuses, McEvoy adapted the principle of the friction primer.”

“The lead weight … had a small hole running its length and was filled with a fulminate compound. A serrated wire ran through the lead and was suspended by a cross pin through the wood cylinder. Upon firing, the set-back force cause the lead piece to be pulled free, igniting the fulminate and in turn the paper time fuse underneath.”

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