Chubb Shell Safe

[Peter Gunn]

Anyone come across one of these before? I knew Chubb were involved in producing 'munitions' during both world wars but this is the first time one of these 'safes' has come to my knowledge. Unfortunately the key is missing but the current owner will doubtless solve this problem!

[Tom Gordon]

Is it cast iron?

[Peter Gunn]

Hi Tom, I don't know but I'll investigate.

[Tom Gordon]

and the diameter?

[Peter Gunn]

Tom, Sorry for delay but family bereavement has taken priority. It measures 10” x 4.5”(dia) and weighs 26.5 Ibs.

[NKT]

Interesting thing. Looks like turned steel to me. A shell is made from brass, rather than steel, and the wall thicknesses at the mouth are far too thin to be secure, so this has to have been done for some special reason. Also, the walls look parallel, which wouldn't be the case for a shell. The engraving is superb, surely machine done, rather than freehand, so probably either days of work, or modern CNC.

I'll be interested to see what others make of it.

[oldlock]

A shell is made from brass, rather than steel,

I'll be interested to see what others make of it.

Not true, a shell case would be brass but the actual projectile would be steel, or some other hard material .

The engraving is fine for hand work of the period.

The key with this is going to be to check the wolverhampton archives once it has been opened and the serial number found.

[NKT]

It's marked as being made from a high explosive shell, so either it's a shell case or else it's a projectile. It couldn't be a modified projectile, as it has no taper, and HE shells are made hollow, so you can't turn them down to a cylinder. It's clearly steel though, so not a case.

My best guess is that they took the hollow cast projectile, and then instead of turning it into a shell head, they simply turned it to a cylinder instead, then added a small door to the end.

[Tom Gordon]

During the first world war the most popular trench projectile was one that was made of hollow but thick cased, cast iron with a pointed brass timer head and filled with high explosive which was projected complete. As the trajectory turned towards head-downwards, the shell exploded and the cast iron shrapnel did it's job. There was I believe a brass ring near the base to allow rifling to work on the cast iron projectile. Trench art, as it is called, would probably account for this piece, fitted no doubt with some type of reclaimed chubb lock, although Chubb are very likely to have helped with the war effort so there is a possibility of it being an engineers "project" from the factory.

[NKT]

Tom, it can't be an old (or even new) shell head as there is no taper on it. There is no way that was done as trench art either - though very fine work in some cases, they didn't have access to lathes and welders! All the trench art was done with a pocket knife, and on the soft brass of the shell cases, not on the hard cast iron projectile part. This was almost certainly made by Chubb themselves, probably for promotional reasons.