ww1 victory shell lamp WW1 Victory Shell Lamp

[Gildwiller1918]

Here is an interesting item I just picked up, a WW1 victory shell that was made into a lamp. It has an inscription on the driving band that reads: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation. Shall they learn war anymore." This is a shell from the T.A. Gillespie run Morgan shell loading plant explosion which occurred on October 4th 1918 in New Jersey, USA. At the time, this plant was one of the largest munitions factories in the world. Around 730 in the evening, there was an explosion, believed to be accidental in nature, which quickly spread fires resulting in additional explosions, which lasted for 3 days. The explosions and fire destroyed the plant and over 300 surrounding buildings.

The plant employed around 6,000 people and it is estimated that at least a hundred died and hundreds more were wounded. Damages exceeded 18 million dollars (around 350 million dollars today) and it was estimated that the munitions lost could have supplied the western front for 6 months. While not the largest explosion in history it is noted that since it lasted over three days and over 12 million pounds of explosives were set off. Since there were live munitions spread over several miles, the surrounding areas had to be evacuated, with around 60,000 people moved out of harms way, however this had a negative side effect as the evacuees were placed in tightly packed areas, the influenza pandemic spread quickly through those areas, and people in this region suffered very high losses. 

The shell shown below is a high explosive 75mm or 3 inch shell, used by the French and US forces. The war was over by the time the plant was safe to enter, so remaining stocks of ammunition were sold off or converted to other products, such as the lamp made by the Snead Company, patented in April of 1919. To this day, shells and shrapnel are still being discovered. 

[Gildwiller1918]

I have gotten parts to put the victory lamp back to its original state. I added a M1917 helmet from my collection, turned out nice, I also have a newly made antique bulb for added nostalgia. 

[72 usmc]

Mine are show at this link 

  It will take me some time to figure out how to post photos.  I am old.  And am a new member that collects toy soldiers, marbles, and military goodies. I an a retired archaeologist. Here is the link to the current Gunboards post that provides the  Wayback machine archive of my old SRF post. The original forum "SRF" (surplusrifleforum .org and .com ) is history after 25 years of posts, so some of my longer posts were saved onto the Wayback archive.  This Victory lamp  post was active till a stoppage in June of this year. This link provides all 11 pages and unlike the marble collectors forum  it can be accessed by non members.  i am not sure how much interest their is in lamp restoration of military  relics or if a 11 page PDF can be attached. I also have a rather long write up about K98K mausers commonly found in the US at surplus stores but I do not think there would be interest in these non bring back Mausers. Back in the day, I restored old WW I and WWII firearms. 

The Snead Victory Lamp and the Uncle Ed lamp  are made from shells of the Morgan explosion as indicated above. There is a book about the history of this event.  Please see  

the new 2022 update on this forum:  The Victory Lamp and Ashtray, a review of factory production shell trench art 

 

[Kenny Andrew]

Hi 72 USMC, welcome to the forum, that's a pity the thread is gone, feel free to repost it here. It's very easy, just copy the text and pictures, then repost them here, here are a few pictures I have just copied.  When you reply you will see "Drag files here to attach, or choose files..." at the bottom of the message box , use this to attach pictures. any problems just let me know.

 

[72 usmc]

 After a review of the old Wayback links  links to the Victory lamp, I find everything is out of date.  It was redone 3 times due to SRF forum crashes. Things really got jumbled.  There are too many brief comments, missing  information, dead links, and it just requires  more references and photos.  So I am in the process of updating and rewriting the SRF Victory  Lamp huge post.  This will take some weeks.  I am  maintaining  somewhat its original format, order, and post numbers, but removing some non essential posts. This is a crazy task taking a good deal of time.  I am up to page 3, but have 12 pages to update, find the photos, and update references. I am adding titles to sections for easy in reading.

My question to  the Administrators. Should I post it here, on this sticky since Gildwiller 1918 started this post with his nice example & great photos, or if he objects, maybe the administrators may want it posted as a new post. To my thought with the first Gildwiller 1918  post as a great example, in makes sense for me to post the long update here as an addition. It will be as long as my K98k postings. Each original SRF  page (all 12) will be posted as separate replies each having 50 + photos for a total of 12 replies added to this post.      I think this will be an informative addition because so many  TB readers seem to be into collecting shells, cartridges and artillery projectiles.   I plan to post the new update here, then delete the outdated old links to the Wayback Archive.    Andrew, Fritz & Gildwiller  Are the Admin OK with such a plan of action?       Thank you for any input. 

[Gildwiller1918]

I don't mind if you add to this post. Whatever works for you, I am just grateful that this information will be posted for others to learn about these lamps and ordnance. 

[Kenny Andrew]

Yes no problem to add it to this thread, I think it would make a great addition to Gildwillers post 

 

[Gildwiller1918]

Found another Victory Shell lamp, well partial one anyway, got it dirt cheap. I will post images once I get it fully restored. 

[Gildwiller1918]

Here is the lamp completed now. It is shown next to the other one I have. This one has been cleaned up and re-finished versus my other example. 

[Dr. J]

I just bought a Victory Lamp however it is missing the top nose of the shell.  Any ideas where I could get a replacement ?