#munitions

The federal government is pouring $1.4 billion into the munitions industry to build up the domestic supply of heavy artillery shells and reduce Canada’s reliance on foreign suppliers. Ottawa will put public funds toward new facilities in Ingersoll, Ont., and Repentigny, Que., for producing components used to make heavy artillery shells. The funding will be split between IMT Precision and General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems Canada. General Dynamics Ordnance, a subsidiary of the major U.S. defence contractor General Dynamics, will get the lion’s share of the funds.

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Ms. Codex 109 is a late 16th century Germany manuscript of the treatise "Feuer Buech," on munitions and explosive devices. It includes many illustrations of the various devices and their uses, and also features illustrations of men in colorful apparel. And the infamous Rocket Cat!

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My spouse and I went antiquing this past weekend. I picked up an odd little item - a tiny copper-plated steel pitcher. My immediate thought was, it's really thick metal - it'll have really great thermal mass and might yield interesting results when steaming milk. Haven't tested that yet. It's about 7.5 cm tall, and the rim is 5cm in diameter, but it bulges out a bit bigger.

But I was taking a look and realized something...

Imagine that without the handle, without the spout, but coming up to more of a point...

No wonder it's seriously heavy for a little metal pitcher! I think someone took an old artillery shell casing and turned it into a useful little pitcher. I wouldn't be surprised if they intended to steam milk with it, too - it's just the right size and shape!

The bottom has an inscription which says "sambonet", "®" and either "1840 Italy" or "18-10 Italy"

Now, Sambonet is an Italian flatware manufacturer. They were founded in 1858 and continue to operate now. Given they were doing metal-plating, and operating in Italy in WWII, I'd say it's a near-certainty they were manufacturing munitions; I can't readily find any resource which confirms that, but I'd put money on it.

The handle is an interesting part, too - close inspection suggests to me that it might have been welded on later, supporting the hypothesis that this was originally a shell casing.

Canadian troops en route to Vimy Ridge