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Flamethrower
The
Wechselapparat
(
Wex
) was a
World War I
German
flamethrower
introduced in 1916 to replace the earlier
Kleif
. Developed by Richard Fiedler, as early as 1901. It had a doughnut-shaped backpack fuel container with a spherical
propellant
container (
nitrogen
) in the middle that blasted the
gasoline
. The containers were made of
welded
car rims, which made it easier to carry it yourself. A corrugated rubber hose led from the tank at the ends of which there were
valves
that enables mixture of fuel and propellant dispensing under
pressure
to the metal fuel pipe which had
handles
on both sides. Wex used a
magnesium
ignition system in a
nozzle
. In order for the fire to burn longer,
tar
was added to the gasoline or instead of it
fuel oil
was completely used up. It was used throughout the war, and some survived flamethrowers have been used by the
Finns
in the 1920s and then converted to
Flammenwerfer 40
. This design was updated before the
Second World War
to become the
Flammerwerfer 35
. However, it was considered too fragile so it was soon replaced by the
Flammenwerfer 41
, a simpler construction with smaller, horizontal, cylindrical backpack containers.
The doughnut-shaped container design was copied by the British during
World War II
as the
Flamethrower, Portable, No 2
.
"
Wechselapparat
" is German for 'exchange apparatus'.
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
- Flamethrowers of the German Army 1914-1945
by Fred Koch
External links
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]