Throughout the First World War creative minds on both sides had been trying to make a projectile that could eradicate the obstacle that had become one of the symbols of stagnant warfare: barbed-wire. No one seemed up to the task and in the end, wire-cutters were still the best way to deal with the problem.
This article is about one inventor’s failed effort to create a time fuse artillery shell that would deploy hooks that grab the wire as it goes speeding by and thereby saving the day. Needless to say, the “hook thing” didn’t work out terribly well and the difficulty inherit with time fuse artillery shells would be perfected during the inter-war years.
Click here to learn about the timing fuses designed for W.W. I shrapnel shells.
