FUZING

COLOR & MARKINGS

OVERALL LENGTH

MAX. BODY DIAMETER

TOTAL WEIGHT

DURATION OF BURNING

COLOR OF SMOKE

DESCRIPTION:

Comprises a cylindrical body, closed at one end by a conical head and a heavy nose. A retarding band is secured to the body adjacent to the head. A tail cone, carrying three vanes to support the vane ring, is secured to the opposite end of the body. End of tail cone houses a pistol adapter for the tail pistol, which is locked in place by a grub screw. Inserted in the pistol adapter is a cup, containing a cartridge base and a small quantity of flash composition, sealed with a paper disc. A sleeve leads from the bottom of the pistol adapter into the funnel-shaped upper end of the tube, known as the con-tainer cap tube. The container for the smoke composition has a fuzible cup inserted into the top of the smoke composition, which is filled with presses priming compostion; above this is a layer of loose priming composition, and a primed cambric disc through which is threaded a length of quickmatch. The container is closed by a container cap. A central cylinder, provided with a ring of holes, surrounds the container. The rest of the body and the tail cone comprise a buoyancy chamber. The tail cone is provided with a sinking disc, which is scored, so that of a floating smoke float is found, the disc can be pierced easily to sink the float, the water entering the tail cone and passing into the body through the holes in the central cylinder.

SUSPENSION:

A suspension lug provided on the body permits attachment of the smoke float to a Light Series Bomb carrier.

FUNTIONING:

When the fuzed smoke float has been dropped from the aircraft impact of the nose on the surface of the water causes the striker of the pistol to hit the cartridge base, and the ensuring flash ignites the flash composition. The flash from the flash composit-ion passes down the container cap tube and ignites the primed cambric disc and quick-match, which ignite the primings. The fusible cup melts, and the primings ignite the smoke composition. Smoke rises up the container cap tube, and the pressure increases, bursting the seal of the tail cone. The short period between impact with water and bursting of the seal is sufficient to enable the smoke float, after submerging, to rise to the surface owing to its buoyancy.

SIMILAR FLOATS:

No. 1, Mk III - The container cap tube serves only to carry the smoke from the con-tainer to the sealed hole in the tail cone; a separate flash tube guides the flash from the flash composition to the container.

No. 1, Mk II - The container cap tube serves only to carry smoke from the container to the sealed hole in the tail cone; a length of safety delay fuze, giving a 20 sec. de-lay, extends between the pistol adapter and the container.

No. 1, Mk IVZ - Differs from the Mk IV float only in the nature of the smoke compo-sition used.

REMARKS:

Should water, especially salt water, come into contact with the smoke composition it is liable to spontaneous combustion due to chemical action. If it is suspected that moisture, especially salt water, has obtained access to the smoke composition, the suspect smoke float is to be segragated immediately and examined at the first possible moment.