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Author Topic: Can you add to the list of sextant numbers?  (Read 550080 times)

Martin X. Moleski, SJ

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Re: Can you add to the list of sextant numbers?
« Reply #195 on: August 12, 2013, 11:29:18 AM »

New Brandis on eBay, looks like Navy 1565.  The NO sticker from 1950 lists the maker's number as No No. which seems odd, perhaps they just didn't look hard enough.  N.O. 1565 can be seen etched on the arc.

I'll wait until you get at least a pair of numbers confirmed--N.O. plus Brandis number--to update the table.
LTM,

           Marty
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Andrew M McKenna

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Re: Can you add to the list of sextant numbers?
« Reply #196 on: August 14, 2013, 06:50:48 PM »

Here is the response from the seller:

<<<<<<<<
Hello Andrew,
Thank you for taking the time to email! I see a three digit number (153) stamped twice on the backside of the unit, notihing on the wood.
The box is marked #1565, 62306-004879. I've reached my limit for photos, but would be happy to email you more if you like.
Thanks again,
>>>>>>>>>>

I'm waiting for photos to be sent to me.  Odd that it has 153 stamped twice on the back as opposed to stamped into the left end of the arc where we've seen the serial numbers in the past.

I'll wait to see what comes in the form of photos.

Andrew
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Martin X. Moleski, SJ

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Re: Can you add to the list of sextant numbers?
« Reply #197 on: August 14, 2013, 09:16:01 PM »

Here is the response from the seller:

<<<<<<<<
Hello Andrew,
Thank you for taking the time to email! I see a three digit number (153) stamped twice on the backside of the unit, notihing on the wood.
The box is marked #1565, 62306-004879. I've reached my limit for photos, but would be happy to email you more if you like.
Thanks again,
>>>>>>>>>>

I'm waiting for photos to be sent to me.  Odd that it has 153 stamped twice on the back as opposed to stamped into the left end of the arc where we've seen the serial numbers in the past.

I'll wait to see what comes in the form of photos.

That doesn't sound like a Brandis number to me (62306-004879) 

Definitely a strange piece!
LTM,

           Marty
           TIGHAR #2359A
 
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Jimmie Tyler

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Re: Can you add to the list of sextant numbers?
« Reply #198 on: August 15, 2013, 02:21:37 PM »

 Hello all, was surfing the web and I came across this David White Co. sextant. http://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/atq/3918298723.html  Down here in HOT!!!! Florida..
Jim, TIGHAR #4064
 
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Martin X. Moleski, SJ

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Re: Can you add to the list of sextant numbers?
« Reply #199 on: August 15, 2013, 03:24:57 PM »

Hello all, was surfing the web and I came across this David White Co. sextant. http://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/atq/3918298723.html 

Thanks, Jimmie.  It's a very interesting piece.  Would you try contacting the owner to get a photo of the plaque on the front?  It would be interesting to see what that tells us about the box.  I don't see any rhyme or reason to what looks like "x9773-" and "R1" on top of the box.
LTM,

           Marty
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Andrew M McKenna

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Re: Can you add to the list of sextant numbers?
« Reply #200 on: August 15, 2013, 03:50:03 PM »

Also, ask for a better photo of the Naval Observatory inspection sticker.

Looks like Navy Observatory number is 3954-1941, but on the sticker there is something written in for the D. WHITE serial number that is unreadable (upon further inspection I think it says MK II).  Would be good to verify if there is a White serial number distinct from the NO number.

Interesting that by 1941 it appears the Navy was adding the year to the NO number.

amck
« Last Edit: August 15, 2013, 03:53:18 PM by Andrew M McKenna »
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Bruce Thomas

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Re: Can you add to the list of sextant numbers?
« Reply #201 on: August 15, 2013, 04:03:31 PM »

Interesting that by 1941 it appears the Navy was adding the year to the NO number.

Yes, that's something that John Kada remarked about in a post he made a year ago.
LTM,

Bruce
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Bruce Thomas

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Re: Can you add to the list of sextant numbers?
« Reply #202 on: August 15, 2013, 05:36:08 PM »

Hello all, was surfing the web and I came across this David White Co. sextant. http://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/atq/3918298723.html  Down here in HOT!!!! Florida..
Jimmie, you inspired me to surf today, too, and I ran across a site listing another David White Co. sextant. It is shown as apparently having been sold to a bidder in July 2012 for $200.

One of the pictures shows the NO# 3811 stamped into a plate on the front of the box. The pictures are too fuzzy to make out anything off the calibration certificate in the lid. The description says "WWII 1941 U.S. Naval Sextant Observatory" but it's unclear what the 1941 really portends. The picture of the instrument in the box is too blurry for me to make out what's stamped on the sextant itself.

What I find interesting is that both of these David White Co. sextants have Naval Observatory numbers in the 3000 range. See John Kada's post from August 2012 where he tries to make sense of the ranges and the dates of (re)calibration of sextants.
LTM,

Bruce
TIGHAR #3123R
 
« Last Edit: August 15, 2013, 05:51:37 PM by Bruce Thomas »
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Jimmie Tyler

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Re: Can you add to the list of sextant numbers?
« Reply #203 on: August 15, 2013, 08:42:04 PM »

Hello all, was surfing the web and I came across this David White Co. sextant. http://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/atq/3918298723.html 

Thanks, Jimmie.  It's a very interesting piece.  Would you try contacting the owner to get a photo of the plaque on the front?  It would be interesting to see what that tells us about the box.  I don't see any rhyme or reason to what looks like "x9773-" and "R1" on top of the box.
  Yes, Marty, and Andrew. Tomorrow, I would be more than happy to contact the owner. I will ask for close up pictures of the front plaque,and the Naval Observatory inspection sticker. I will report back ASAP.

Hello all, was surfing the web and I came across this David White Co. sextant. http://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/atq/3918298723.html  Down here in HOT!!!! Florida..
Jimmie, you inspired me to surf today, too, and I ran across a site listing another David White Co. sextant. It is shown as apparently having been sold to a bidder in July 2012 for $200.


Bruce, I am happy to have inspired you!! Thank you for posting the links.
Jim, TIGHAR #4064
 
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Joe Cerniglia

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Re: Can you add to the list of sextant numbers?
« Reply #204 on: August 16, 2013, 05:56:14 AM »

A few weeks back I was browsing a good sextant website to which TIGHAR has occasionally linked in its articles on sextants.  There does not seem much of great interest in the numbering of these sextant boxes (photo 1, photo 2), since each box has only a single number associated with it. 

What is interesting to me are the genuine blind ("drawer style") dovetails on the middle (Ajax Engineering) and bottom (David White) boxes of photo 1.  Most of the sextant boxes associated with Brandis (a company of which the box found on Niku has speculatively been associated) that I've seen are of the box-comb ("finger") joint variety, not dovetailed.  The box on top in photo 1 is a Pioneeer-Bendix box and has box-comb joints.  (Pioneer purchased Brandis in 1922.)  Patrick Macdonald, British colonial secretary for the Western Pacific High Commission, said to Colonial Secretary Vaskess that the sextant box found on Nikumaroro had dovetailing on the corners. 

The article on these sextants and boxes is here.

The numbers on the boxes are as follows: The top box, the Brandis Box, has 14170. The Ajax box, the middle box, has written beside Mark II, faintly, 10479, Contract No. 97652 and next to that the numeral 1942 (production year?). The David White box, bottom box, has 3782 stamped on the front.  The webmaster of the site, who lives in New Zealand, informed me no other numbers can be detected on the boxes, with the exception of an index number in pencil on the inside back of the lid of the top box, which matches the number on the outside plate.

What's been of long-standing interest to me as well is that Bendix was a sponsor of world flight, agreeing to provide "such instruments and other equipment as he manufactures and otherwise cooperate technically." Pioneer, which purchased Brandis, sold the firm to Bendix in 1928.  The one document or photograph, however, that might tie everything neatly together in a nice package has been elusive.

Joe Cerniglia ~ TIGHAR #3078ECR
« Last Edit: August 16, 2013, 02:44:50 PM by Joe Cerniglia »
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Andrew M McKenna

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Re: Can you add to the list of sextant numbers?
« Reply #205 on: August 16, 2013, 04:30:36 PM »

Following up on the Brandis with N.O. number 1565

Seller says

<<<<<<<
Hi Andrew,
I checked again and here are two photos of the only other numbers I can see.
Hope this helps.
Thanks
>>>>>>>>>
photos attached if I figured out how to add them properly

The 153 looks to me like it is a part number for part of the sextant, not the serial number for the entire instrument.

Seems odd that Brandis would not have the serial number at the end of the arc, but the N.O. inspection sticker does note that there is No No. for the maker.  Perhaps they changed their numbering system at some point and given that this sextant has the N.O. imprinted and painted right on the sextant, it would seem they were coordinating with the Navy on numbering sextants.  Keep in mind this one seems to have been made in 1941 (?) whereas many of the other sextants we've looked at apparently were made in the late teens.

[Added after the fact - oops, I just realized I'm mixing up the 1941 date of the D. White sextant with this one.  No reason to think this one was mfgr in 1941.  Definitely has a different than "normal" numbering system though.]
Andrew
« Last Edit: August 16, 2013, 04:46:22 PM by Andrew M McKenna »
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Jimmie Tyler

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Re: Can you add to the list of sextant numbers?
« Reply #206 on: August 17, 2013, 05:03:41 PM »

Hello all, was surfing the web and I came across this David White Co. sextant. http://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/atq/3918298723.html 

Thanks, Jimmie.  It's a very interesting piece.  Would you try contacting the owner to get a photo of the plaque on the front?  It would be interesting to see what that tells us about the box.  I don't see any rhyme or reason to what looks like "x9773-" and "R1" on top of the box.

 Hello fellas, the seller has responded to my request. He, or she has also supplied some great pics!! The response goes as follows....

 "Hello Jim, here are the pictures you were asking for. The writing on the inspection tag is a little faded but I think the camera got most of it. It is easier to read in person... It is dated 12/11/1942 maker is D. White and no. is mk ii sextant 3954_41 class ets the eccentricity corrections are... Angle 0=0 20=-2 40=-2 60=+13 80=+23 100=+3 and 120=-3 thanks for the interest and let me know if theres anything else I can answer for ya."
Jim, TIGHAR #4064
 
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Jimmie Tyler

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Re: Can you add to the list of sextant numbers?
« Reply #207 on: August 17, 2013, 05:05:28 PM »

  Oops, missed the second pic some how.. Here we go..
Jim, TIGHAR #4064
 
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Jimmie Tyler

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Re: Can you add to the list of sextant numbers?
« Reply #208 on: August 17, 2013, 05:06:47 PM »

  Hope this helps fellas, please let me know if I can be of anymore assistance.. Thank You!!
Jim, TIGHAR #4064
 
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Martin X. Moleski, SJ

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Re: Can you add to the list of sextant numbers?
« Reply #209 on: August 17, 2013, 09:19:20 PM »

  Oops, missed the second pic some how.. Here we go..

Thanks, Jim.  That sure looks like a very official NO plaque.  I'm not sure I've seen one like that before.
LTM,

           Marty
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