Poles for signal wire?

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by rob love

More:
1: Next are these army green telephone boxes. The photo inside shows the full setup. The candlesticks are missing as are the hand-cranks for the ringers, so the quest for those begins. But I did get to hear those bells dingeling all the way home, even after putting paper in between the clangers and the bells.

2&3: I grabbed one of the rangefinder telescopes. It is missing one eyepiece along with the instrument stand, so the search for those will begin.

4: There was a box of live ammunition, which was mostly shotgun shells. The owner does not want live ammunition in his sheds, as the storage laws for this kind of stuff has increased over the years, and as well he is worried about fire when 70 year old ammo goes off. There were 3 larger caliber bullets (20/40 marked) which appear to be live, with dark blue heads. (edited: a google search shows this to be likely Lahti 20mm ammunition).

1) The candlestick telephones are sought after and will definitely not be cheap, I suspect.

2,3) very nice, I hope you can complete it.

4) Are those for (as Dean A. Grennell memorably described it) "the Lahti 20mm anti-tank cannon of formidable puissance"? I have seen the beast in question: snowboard-mounted, and with a muzzle brake like a giant harmonica. There is something very worrying about a "rifle" that you can insert your (cotton-gloved) thumb (it was in the Enfield Pattern Room) into the end of the muzzle brake without touching the sides.

Best regards,
Chris.

[rob love]

Re #4. Yes, it will be that Lahti. I have seen a few of them around, and they are nice rifles, however there was also a Solothurn around here for a while. I was there the day it blew up. Now that WAS a nice rifle. It has since moved to a new owner who I believe was going to try to rebuild it, however recent government prohibitions here in Canada have banned the use of guns like these. As such, the cartridges I obtained will likely end up with a cartridge collector.



Re the candlestick telephone, I'll keep my eyes out (where else) at my favorite surplus store. They are bound to be out there somewhere.

Rob

[Barry J. Cox]

Cleaning rods on the fender seem to fit the 40mm Bofors. Also commonly used on the 37mm U.S. anti-tank gun, tho probably not correct. Maybe the CC is for Chrysler Corp, who made the 40, but have never seen any official info on that.

Always thought the brushes with the fluid container and valve might be for stenciling.

And the Lahti is not so bad to shoot, especially if one mounts it on a tripod, or better yet, a stand behind mount. But the Solothurn is the one to use with that ammo; a true work of art, and way too pretty, and heavy, to take into combat.

[Kirk Armitage]

The center Brush in the pic is identical to the one I have, it was full of blue ink . It came with a paper stencil cutting machine I got from Crane Printers in Ottawa , when they closed .
K Armitage

[rob love]

You guys are correct on the brush...a quick google search on fountain brush shows they are still available today for stenciling.
Re the cleaning rods, there has to be a reason those were here in Manitoba. The only things that I can think of would have been the Stuart or Staghound...perhaps moreso the staghound as those were in Manitoba. As to Bofors, Canada used the hinged cleaning rods as opposed to the US pattern of rod, so that would not have been a reason for them to be here. As well, both the sets of rods came in a set of 3 which is pretty long for the antitank gun, but would make more sense on a tank or armoured car.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

When you look at CMP stenciled markings (CZ xxx etc.) many don't have sharp edges that you would expect from spray paint, and the hand done ones are usually detectable. Given that rattle cans hadn't been invented yet and spray paint with compressors would have been difficult I wonder if these fountain brushes were used.

[rob love]

Here is a shot of the two carrier adjusting cams. The thick one ends in B, the thin one would be later and the part number ends in C. Note the older (larger) one has an extra hole compared to the later one.