Gun Sight?

[IJDALLINGER]

Stow Museum has recently come into possession of an article that we need help identifying please.

It is made of brass and has the size and appearance of a telescope but has the following stamped into the side. ' VICKERS SONS & MAXIM LTD . 1907. No606. Tel.Sighting No 4 (Mark 1)'.

It was said to be in the possession of an RNAS Officer.

Could anyone throw some light please?

[TonyE]

Sounds like a naval gun-laying telescope. A photograph would confirm.

There is a No.4 Mark III in the National Maritime Museum collection.

http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/explore/object.cfm?ID=NAV1583

Regards

TonyE

[IJDALLINGER]

Sounds like a naval gun-laying telescope. A photograph would confirm.

There is a No.4 Mark III in the National Maritime Museum collection.

http://www.nmm.ac.uk....cfm?ID=NAV1583

Regards

TonyE

Thanks for that it looks v similar. I am gratefull and will pass this on to the owner.

[MikB]

The No.4 Mk.I was the standard sighting telescope used on the rocking-bar sight on the standard British 18-pdr fieldpiece, and possibly the 13-pdr too. I don't know whether it was also used on naval guns of comparable size, but the army artillery piece has to be a far more probable source statistically. It had 5.5x magnification and a 5.5 degree field of view. The rocking bar gave it an independent line of sight from the barrel's angle of elevation.

There's a neat drawing of it mounted in position on pp.250-251 of Len Trawin's 'Early British Quick Firing Artillery' - I could do a scan, but dunno if it would infringe copyright.

Regards,

MikB

[IJDALLINGER]

Thank you very much. It is appreciated.

The No.4 Mk.I was the standard sighting telescope used on the rocking-bar sight on the standard British 18-pdr fieldpiece, and possibly the 13-pdr too. I don't know whether it was also used on naval guns of comparable size, but the army artillery piece has to be a far more probable source statistically. It had 5.5x magnification and a 5.5 degree field of view. The rocking bar gave it an independent line of sight from the barrel's angle of elevation.

There's a neat drawing of it mounted in position on pp.250-251 of Len Trawin's 'Early British Quick Firing Artillery' - I could do a scan, but dunno if it would infringe copyright.

Regards,

MikB

[John Thorne]

Here are a few pages from the Handbook of Artillery Instruments, 1914, about this telescope. Shrinking them down to meet the size limitations for the forum reduced the detail too much, so I've loaded them as a zip file. Download the file (3 mB) here:

Telescope No. 4 Mk. I

BTW, MikB, the Handbook does mention that this telescope was used with the 13-pdr Q.F. gun, as well as the 18-pdr. No mention of naval use, but then there wouldn't be in an army publication.

[nigelfe]

Here are a few pages from the Handbook of Artillery Instruments, 1914, about this telescope. Shrinking them down to meet the size limitations for the forum reduced the detail too much, so I've loaded them as a zip file. Download the file (3 mB) here:

Telescope No. 4 Mk. I

BTW, MikB, the Handbook does mention that this telescope was used with the 13-pdr Q.F. gun, as well as the 18-pdr. No mention of naval use, but then there wouldn't be in an army publication.

Telescopes sighting were, of course, direct fire instuments. This meant thay had very little use in WW1, although not doubt they were part of the gun stores, at least at the beginning of the war. The length (18+ inches) of the No 4 meant that it was probably too long to be fitted to the first generation of dial sights (which were replaced by the No 7)

[mattyj]

I have an ottway power 8 dated 1918..there is some residue crusty on outside sticky on inside.unsure if its leakage or part of gun internals

[Mike_H]

Mattyi

Possibly perished rubber from an eyeshield.

M