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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Mystery binocular (1 Viewer)

smurf.for.mark

smurf.for.mark

Well-known member
An unusual binocular found its way to my door today. a complete mystery?
id say they were 6x24. no makers marks/serial numbers can be found just what has been crudely scratched onto the prism plates.
i must say iv been googling for days and yet to find another one?
 

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The 'three-pronged' trident symbol on the top plate next to the hinge looks like the Ministry of War mark stamped on binos during World War II in the UK, so this indicates UK manufacture.

Lee
 
mark22c said:
yes i noticed the crows foot marking and wondered if they had been "loaned" to the military?
that centre hinge though?
Click to expand...

Never seen anything like that hinge.

On the one hand it doesn't look designed to stand the rigours of military service, which doesn't prove much because I believe all binos of all kinds were comandeered by the Ministry of War.

However, if the construction used aluminium this design surely minimised the amount used. Aly was in desperate short supply for the making of aircraft at the time.

Lee
 
Hello,

The flat screw head on the hinge looks rather crude. My guess is that it poorly repaired.

Happy bird watching,
Arthur :hi:
 
MOD mark

Troubador said:
The 'three-pronged' trident symbol on the top plate next to the hinge looks like the Ministry of War mark stamped on binos during World War II in the UK, so this indicates UK manufacture.

Lee
Click to expand...

The MOD "arrows" started life as three rifles propped up against each other. It morphed into broad arrows. The Navy CF41 7x50 had large bright yellow arrows for example.
The Ministry of Defence asked for binoculars to be loaned to the war effort and they were tested at the National Physics Laboratory at Teddington. You can sometimes see NPL engraved. If the bino was not suitable it was engraved with just two parts of the arrow - the middle and one side. At the end of the war they were returned to the original owners and the broad arrow was repeated upside down to form six lined star. If they had been lost or destroyed, the original owner was given a replacement.
The arrow does not indicate UK manufacture. You can see the symbol on french, american and german models.
 
richard866945 said:
The MOD "arrows" started life as three rifles propped up against each other. It morphed into broad arrows. The Navy CF41 7x50 had large bright yellow arrows for example.
The Ministry of Defence asked for binoculars to be loaned to the war effort and they were tested at the National Physics Laboratory at Teddington. You can sometimes see NPL engraved. If the bino was not suitable it was engraved with just two parts of the arrow - the middle and one side. At the end of the war they were returned to the original owners and the broad arrow was repeated upside down to form six lined star. If they had been lost or destroyed, the original owner was given a replacement.
The arrow does not indicate UK manufacture. You can see the symbol on french, american and german models.
Click to expand...

Richard
Thanks for clarifying that the 'arrows' or 'crows feet' do not indicate UK manufacture and for supplying so much background info.

Lee
 
The Broad Arrow military marking dates from about 1550 in England and later in Britain.
It is found Later in Australia, India and other colonies. :)

14A is the RAF marking with the arrow. I have probably seen this on hundreds of optics, cameras etc.

The binocular above looks like a British Army special glass, second grade prismatic binocular S.2, or even S.5 third grade binocular.

I haven't found an A16 meaning.

There are letters denoting years from about 1935 to 1959 and probably more, some indicating two differing years wide apart.
Including.
R 1939
Q 1940
P 1941
O 1942
N 1943
M 1944
L or Z 1945.

I don't know if the A on the binocular is a date code, or the whole number identifies the lender.

I thought that the binocular might be French.

Anyway, binocular maybe £10 delivered.
 
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