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My wife's uncle gave this valve to her dad and told him he got it from a U-boat during the war. My father-in-law was going to weld it onto one of his steam pumps but I told him "not bloody likely" if it did come from a U-boat.

The handle looks very old, but the brass is pretty new looking. The company name is Lunkenheimer, and their web site states they have been in business for over 90 years. I tried sending the pics to them but their email box is full.

Ignore the teflon tape, by F.I.L. put it on.

So does anyone have any ideas about this?

Nothing substantial Chris, but almost definitely not from a German U-Boat.

I believe the company is American. I fought a Time Magazine article from 1943 that was talking about delays in the US Escort construction program that was caused by a bottleneck in valve production, specifically concerning the companies Lunkenheimer and Crane. The website for the company that you tried to contact has a copyright of 2005, so I'm not confident it's active. I also found a Lunkenheimer catalog from 1971 on eBay if you're interested in bidding. :cheeky:

The 1/4 size designation on the side, i.e the "1" over the "4" with a horizontal rather than diagonal line between them, is a very common marking on US made pipe, particularly on older valves and fittings. Doesn't mean all that much since I have no idea how the Germans mark fractional sizes, but it certainly looks like other US made valves I have seen.

Yeah, the 1/4 made me pretty sure it wasn't from Europe, otherwise it would have been in metric. And when I checked out the Lukenheimer website the English seemed too good to be translation.

And it would make far more sense it coming from a North American ship then from a U-boat. Even though my wife's uncle was in the war how the hell would he get hold of it if from a U-boat?

Thanks guys.