Printable View
Picked this up several years back. I was told it might be for refilling the Enfield buttsock oiliers by armours, but not sure? Maybe it goes with MG? or something else? Broad Marked on the bottom with the Austrailan D D mark and some other numbers. Any ideas? Thanks.Attachment 40899Attachment 40898Attachment 40900
Vickers oil can missing the leather cover.
Thanks!
I believe these were originally for the 18-pdr. I've yet to find official records of their use for the Vickers but they are very similar to the half-pint oil can. I think these are 1.5 or 2 pints.
Richard
Useful things similar to these oil cans were made by apprentices during their 'tin-bashing' or 'tin smithing' phase of basic training. I never made anything like this but do remember making a funnel that had a tapering spout and a tin box for keeping........, well, I never found anything that I could usefully keep in it except a load of drill bits.
I sat this because the markings on the base look pretty amateurish to me, such as an apprentice would - and not like any manufacturers marks. Anyway, as Richard says. Nothing like we used with our Vickers guns
Can markings are pretty standard to others viewed.
Also not saying they were a dedicated Vickers oil bottle but you often found them associated with the Vickers MMG. Most who have fired a Vickers know how much oil a Vickers can require. I also have seen, on more than one occasion, the leather coverings marked to a MMG company.
We can probably also safely assume that the leather/tin 25 pounder funnel got some use in filling the odd Vickers water jacket as well.
Now you mention it, I have seen them marked to MG companies as well. It's likely to be a generic, and useful, way of carrying oil for the Vickers but not something I've seen marked up as Vickers or in any of the documentation. The funnel is sometimes marked for both the Vickers and artillery.
The oil can that would have been more common, and fitted in the spares case, was the half-pint one, which had the same spout, but was later replaced with the standard 'Can, Oil, MG, Mk. I'.
Richard
---------- Post added at 05:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:37 PM ----------
Here's a picture of one in it's leather case. Royal Carriage Department 1917.
Collection photos :: CollectionInsurance286.jpg picture by vickersmachinegun - Photobucket
Just thinking outside the box a bit but probably not a good idea to mix up the cans if they contain different oils. The oil for the Vickers was not the usual mineral detergent type or the hypoy stuff for breech mechs as used for field artillery but OX type oils - in this case OX52.