bkristof Posted 4 January , 2005 Share Posted 4 January , 2005 Can someone tell what this is??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KONDOA Posted 4 January , 2005 Share Posted 4 January , 2005 Evening BK Looks very much like an inclinometer for measuring hieghts etc. Edit: Having said that it would appear from the feet that it has a more horizontal /planar usage. Roop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIGEL Posted 4 January , 2005 Share Posted 4 January , 2005 I am not into this stuff Kristof, but i would agree with Roop, i have seen similar things before, and remember making simple versions at school to measure the height of trees and high rise buildings. The curved brass plate would have markings that would give you part of the calcalation that you need to get the height or incline, and the pendalum would give you the angle on the curved brass plate. But i'm probably 100 % wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T8HANTS Posted 4 January , 2005 Share Posted 4 January , 2005 Hi Kristoff yes an incinometer, but is that a lens set into what appears to be an arm to asssit in reading off the scale? Also military incinometers are sometimes marked in mills (not milimeters) instaed of degrees. I dont know why, but an ex gunner might enlighten us. Gareth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkristof Posted 4 January , 2005 Author Share Posted 4 January , 2005 it is indeed some sort of lens in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T8HANTS Posted 4 January , 2005 Share Posted 4 January , 2005 That is very unusual, and I think indicates an early piece of equipment as the later versions had no lens. Could it be German? what makers or inspection markings does it have, or a W. D. Arrow? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkristof Posted 4 January , 2005 Author Share Posted 4 January , 2005 looks very British... but... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Poilu Posted 4 January , 2005 Share Posted 4 January , 2005 Kristof, If it has a lens it may be a rangefinder? Take off the dial and it bears similarities to early accessory rangefinders for Leica I cameras. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikB Posted 4 January , 2005 Share Posted 4 January , 2005 Looks like a clinometer to me. Some artillery pieces had a register machined on the outside parallel to the bore. Obviously if the gun platform wasn't level, as it often wouldn't be when there hadn't been time to do a Rolls-Royce job, the elevation readings off the angle quadrants on the gun wouldn't mean much, and an independent instrument such as this could be used to set the angle true. Is there a spirit level to set a horizontal datum, and a vernier scale on the stationary part? Even if there is, this one doesn't look big enough to be very precise, though the magnifier over the scale would help. Regards, MikB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CSMMo Posted 5 January , 2005 Share Posted 5 January , 2005 Regarding mils vs. degrees as a unit of measure - mils are more precise a circle has 6400 mils and 380 degrees. I don't know if they used mils then, but they are the unit of measure for Army Artillery in the US Army. US Naval gunfire still uses degrees. Don't know about British Artillery. Any British redlegs out there? Mike Morrison Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg1 Posted 5 January , 2005 Share Posted 5 January , 2005 Mils were adopted by the British and most Commonwealth armies after the Second World War. all previous instruments are marked in degrees. A mil is the angle subtended by 1metre at 1000 metres,not neccesarily more accurate than degrees minutes and seconds but much easier to use being a series of 4 digit numbers to add and subtract. When I di Naval Gunfire Support for the Royal Australian Navy in the 1980s they were still using degrees. Incidentally the Russians and I think finland use a mil with 6000 to the circle ( A piece of trivia for which I have to thank a saleman from BAE who was flogging radars to the Finns in the 1990s) the instrument that you have looks like what we used to call a gunners quadrant(inclinometer) by that stage used as part of the sight testing routine. Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike_H Posted 6 January , 2005 Share Posted 6 January , 2005 Kris I think that this is a pocket Abney Level, I have seen a photo of the instrument in a Royal Engineers Field Survey Handbook from the 1930s, unfortuately I don't have my own copy to refer to. Used like a clinometer to measure slopes- perhaps we have a Sapper on the forum who can enlighten us. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkristof Posted 6 January , 2005 Author Share Posted 6 January , 2005 Thanks lads, looking foward to see manuals... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Pete Wood Posted 6 January , 2005 Share Posted 6 January , 2005 Mils. Blimey, that takes me back to my old map reading days. What was the saying...?? Mag to Grid, get rid. Grid to Mag, have a fag [add]. Or something like that........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkristof Posted 6 January , 2005 Author Share Posted 6 January , 2005 Bad memories Pete?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Pete Wood Posted 6 January , 2005 Share Posted 6 January , 2005 Bad memories Pete?? Dozens, Kristoff. The worst was being in the lead vehicle in a convoy, travelling between west Germany and Berlin. I misread the map, and took the whole convoy past the Berlin turn off (while we were in East Germany). We had the Polizei and Russian jeeps trying to flag us down and I'm telling my driver to ignore them. "Keep driving." It was only when I saw the road sign to Poland that I realised I was in a spot of bother...... I can find my way to the sweet shop though, every time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg1 Posted 6 January , 2005 Share Posted 6 January , 2005 Problem is added to in Australia. You add and subtarct in the opposite way-quite a problem when I got to Uk greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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