Something thats been bugging me...

[Akubra]

Hello all.
This has been bugging me for a while now and I post in the hope that someone here can shed some light on the job of those rings that are hanging on the rafters?
It's my understanding that each man received a handgun for protection and if the case arises, for a quick anesthetics. But those rings?
The photographs information is that was taken in the armoury of No 149 squadron who were based at St Omer in 1918.
Two Gunners and a Sergent are inspecting their Lewis guns prior to a sortie.
I have inserted a slight enlargement of subject in question in the bottom right corner of the photo for your convenience.

[twenty eight]

It's hard to see in the pic, but they may be artillery gauges used to check the size of cannonball.

[ICT_SLB]

I've seen similar circular wrenches used to set the elapsed time before a shell exploded and thus for ack-ack the height. The original from about the 17th century was a spiral set of dots on a shell fuse - the gunner pierced the required point for the time of flight so the shell burst over the taget. The old Priddy's Hard Museum near Fareham used to have a great display of old gunnery but it all got removed with the "update".

[Akubra]

You could very well be right on the fuse spanner ICT_SLB.
Number 149 sqn did primarily fly FE.2b's as night bombers.
I will have a look at bomb fuse's used around 1918.