L.M.G. or l.M.G.?, Infrared archeologist scientist wanted!

Hi all,

I know, you're saying,

"What the hell is this thread?"

I hear you, but stick with me.

I have acquired an armourer's crate for a L.M.G. 08/15 SPANDAU.

An LMG was made by the Spandau arsenal in Berlin, shipped in a crate with its spare parts, (extra barrels, trigger locks, boosters, flash hiders, etc.), to a aircraft factory. There they would fit the aircraft firing devices, and fit the gun to an aircraft. Once fitted and sighted in, they would remove the gun and place it in the armourer's crate, and ship it, (with its aircraft), to a Flug Park, and ultimately to the Jasta, where the Jasta's armourer would refit the gun and retain the crate for maintinence of the weapon while in service.

A Captain from the C.E.F. brought home a aircraft gun with the armourer's crate. He painted the top of the crate black and applied his name with white paint for shipping home.

Okay, here's the deal.

There has been a long time debate whether "L.M.G." from the L.M.G. SPANDAU stands for,

“Leicht Maschinen Gewehr” (Light Machine Gun)

or

“Luftgekühlt Maschinen Gewehr”, (Air-cooled Machine Gun).

The tricky part is, I can just barely make out lettering underneath the black paint on the lid. You can only see it from the fact that it is raised from the thickness of the paint. Some of the black paint has been rubbed away in an open area, (someone else was trying to read the words, but stopped as they didn't want to remove the Captain's name), and you can see "08/15". At the right side it appears that it says, "L.M.G. 08/15". At the left, I think it may say "Luft-", but it's a highly stylized type font, and under the black paint. I can't make it out.

I'm wondering if it may be possible to "bring out" the words by the use of infrared. The original German lettering is white paint under the black over-paint. I'm thinking the paint that is black over white will radiate less or reflect more heat/light than the background area.

Does this sound possible?

More importantly, does anyone have a suggestion of who may have equipment that could do this, (other than the FBI labratory)?

I am in Indianapolis. Would a hospital have anything like this? Maybe a metal smelting place where they look at hot metal, or possibly motor developers use it to look at different temperature exhaust pipes or cylinder heads.

I don't know that why I'm hoping someone here may have an idea.

Thanks for any input to resolving this old mystery.

Best,
Dave W.

Interesting. The answer to your question is yes, using various spectroscopy methods restoration specialists can "see" under top layers of paint to what is underneath.

Just go to Google or your search engine of choice and search on "fine art resoration". I did and came up with several companies that look like they can do what you want. One can be found at:

http://www.total.net/~zsiga/introduction.htm

I'm just not sure how much it would cost

This sounds like a very good application for a black light as it will phosphoresce with the white paint below, marginally at best, but possibly make it more discernable. You can get a good black light for around $15 and you want the space you are working in to be 100% black. Do not use a black light lightbulb, this is not concentrated enough. Make sure the surface is clean so that dirt is not obstructing.

You can also take a high-resolution digital color photo and, if you like, I will work on it and see what I can pull out of it. You should atke it without flash and both perpendicular to the surface and from an angle.

You may also have some success with very carefully rubbing a pencil or black chalk over a piece of tracing paper.

My bet is for Luftgekühlt Maschinen Gewehr as the meaning. Non-aviation machine guns would have just been M.G.

Thanks for the helpful comments.

Charles,

I will definitely follow up with our Art museum to see if they have any possibilities. Thanks for the offer of looking at photos, but I think it will be difficult at best. I will try the black light approach and will see how that goes.

Aaron,
You would think you would be correct with "non-aviation guns would simply be M.G.", but that's not the case. An excellent reference on the subject is Dolf Goldsmith's, The Devil's Paintbrush, which deals heavily with the Maxim machine gun, as well as other similarly designed machine guns. As you know the aircraft Spandau is marked on the cover with "L.M.G. 08/15". There were other guns developed and produced by Germany in WW1, such as the Bergmann, (I believe 10,000 produced), and it is intended for infantry use only and it carries the letters, "L.M.G." on the cover, and is considered a light machine gun. What you find is after WW1, there is no doubt that L.M.G. does only stand for light machine gun, as it is printed as such in all manuals for such weapons. The only catch is, no one has a manual for the "L.M.G. 08/15 SPANDAU". Even the trench version M.G. 08/15 is often referred to as a L.M.G. in manuals, or actually on the cover of manuals, as it was the lightened version of the M.G. 08. This is why the "light" machine gun faction has had the high ground in this debate from day one.

Personally, I think it may be both. I think in 1915 it started out as L. for luft, but later by 1917 it fell into the category of L. for leicht.

The one thing I have noticed is the usage of "L.M.G." versus "l.M.G.". I have a feeling "L." may stand for Leicht, and "l." may stand for luft. No total proof of this, but the contents label for the armourer's crate uses this "l.M.G." nomenclature where the person fills in the type and serial number of the weapon they are putting in the crate.

Best,
Dave