Tripod changes - late WWI

[edvic]

I was wondering if anyone would happen to know when the practice of notching elevating wheels was instituted. Along the same lines, when did England stop making tripods with offset traversing clamps? I have a 1918 made gun and I'd love to mount it on a tripod that looks correct for that late WWI time period. Thanks!

[WWImg]

Hi - I am quoting from the book "The Grand Old Lady of No Man's Land", a history of the Vickers Machine Gun,- the early crosshead had an elevating wheel with a smooth surface. It was fitted with a two-piece metal dial cover with graduations stamped into its surface. The dial covers were used until 1918 when the smooth surface of the elevating wheel itself was modified with the addition of the "slots and dimples" stamped into it so a gunner could feel his way to make adjustments in the dark. Also, the tripod's direction dial was changed to a two-piece unit that turned. The early WWI tripods with the wheel cover and MK I Direction Dial are known as MKIVA and the 1918 tripods with the MK II direction dial and the modified elevating wheel (slots and dimples) are MKIVB.

[Richard Fisher]

To add to the above, all 'A' tripods were instructed to be altered to the 'B' and an armourer's instruction was issued in 1927 and seems to have been faithfully carried out as I have not seen an unaltered one.

Richard

[edvic]

Thank you both for your help! Will, I suspected the answer was buried somewhere in The Grant Old Lady, but couldn't find it. If ever there was a book that needed to be converted to a searchable PDF, this is it. I'm in the process of doing that now.