British / US WW1 1916 QF 18-Pounder Gun Brass Shell Casing Reloaded and Fired Many Times!  

ON AUCTION IS THIS BRITISH / US  QF 18 POUNDER GUN BRASS SHELL CASING MANUFACTURED IN 1916 DURING THE WW1. IT FEATURES VARIOUS INTERESTING MARKS TO INDICATE THIS SHELL WAS RELOADED AND FIRED MANY TIMES DURING THE WAR PLEASE HAVE A LOOK BELOW.

MARKINGS: 
a) 18 PR means Pounder which is shortened to "18-PR".  Pounder denotes a gun which fired a projectile of approximately 18 pounds.
b) II MEANS Mark 2 
c) CF - Charge loaded with cordite England
Every time the case went back to a National Filling Factory to be reloaded with another full charge, the factory would stamp another F next to or below the original "CF".
d) 1/ 16 on Primer Cap Year of manufacture January 1916
e) Lot 196 on shell and LOT 310 on Primer Cap Lot number for that year 
f) BROAD ARROW - BRITISH MILITARY ACCEPTANCE / PROPERTY MARK
g) E.W.B.C. under Broad Arrow - Refer to E.W. Bliss Company a prominent manufacturer of heavy machinery and ordnance that operated in both the United States and the United Kingdom during the World Wars.
h) B.S.C. on primer cap - Stands for the Bethlehem Steel Company. They were contracted by the British government to produce large quantities of artillery ammunition in the United States.
i) US in Circle on Primer Cap - (typically a No. 1 Mk II primer) indicates it was manufactured by the United States Cartridge Company a World War I-era mark denoting American manufacturing under contract for the British military. During the height of World War I, British munitions factories couldn't keep up with the staggering demand for Quick Firing (QF) 18-pounder field gun ammunition.The British War Office contracted several American companies to manufacture empty brass cartridge cases, primers, and shell components.The United States Cartridge Company produced these primers and often shipped them to the UK or other contractors (such as E.W. Bliss & Co.) to be filled with gunpowder and assembled
j) CRY - Stands for the Chester Railway Wagon and Carriage Company. It is a British World War I-era rebuilder/contractor marking. During WWI, spent 18-pounder brass cartridge cases were frequently returned to factories and railway workshops to be reshaped, annealed, and reloaded.The Chester Railway Wagon & Carriage Company (based in Sealand, Chester) was one of the many private commercial firms contracted by the British government to recondition and inspect these spent shell cases.You will often find the "CRY" stamp alongside an "A" (for annealed or refurbish) and an "S" (for Scleroscope, an early type of material hardness testing)
k) Red letters G26 near CF (stenciled on the brass cartridge casing) indicate the specifics of the propellant charge. These stenciled red markings provided vital safety and ballistic information to the gun crews. Identifies the exact production batch of the propellant to ensure consistent firing ballistics. The stenciling was applied by the munitions filling factory to ensure gun crews could easily identify the exact ballistic properties, charge weights, and dates of manufacture before firing.

The Ordnance QF (Quick-Firing) 18-pounder was the standard field gun of the British Empire during the First World War. Introduced in 1904, the highly reliable and mobile artillery piece fired approximately 100 million shells, serving as the backbone of the Royal Field Artillery until it was gradually replaced in the 1930s. (The term "quick-firing" (QF) indicated that the projectile and the brass cartridge case contained the cordite propellant which were loaded together as a single, unified piece of fixed ammunition.)

SIZE: THE CASE IS 82MM IN DIAMETER AT THE OPEN END WITH A TOTAL LENGTH OF 290MM. 
WEIGHT OF CASING: 1,475KG

CONDITION: SOME PATINA SPOTS BUT STILL IN GOOD CONDITION. 

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