question Mystery.

[kernfromstoke]

Can anyone ID this? It's two foot long exactly. If you look in the centre circular glass you can see left or right. Not left and right. The two knobe are for focusing, Left knob, left focus. Right knob, right focus. It has the British arrow mark, and stamped on it is. TEL. DRILL. No 3. MK1. 1943. No 809. It's made entirely of Brass. I aquired it but aint got a clue what it is. Intrigued or what?

Nige.

[Chris Hall]

drill rangefinder? I don't know why you would have one for drill purposes.

[kernfromstoke]

Not sure it's a rangefinder, You can't see forward through it, only sideways.

[Locolines]

maybe its for surveying ?

[AlienFTM]

I don't have a clue but I do have some thoughts.

 

I don't believe the word DRILL implies spiralling through earth / metal, etc, but may refer to, "it isn't a real one: it's for testing your usage drills". Like drill ammunition.

 

My first instinct was as a stereoscopic range-finding telescope as usually seen in the hands of Wehrmacht field gun NCOs. Would explain "TEL DRILL".

 

But I struggle to see how you might use one for drill purposes, unless maybe it's a classroom module and maybe allows a lesson to be run in the classroom where focussing the telescope at, say, ten feet, functions as if the student were in the field and focussing at 1000 yards.

 

But don't quote me.

 

Edit Then I searched for Telescope Drill Number 3 and was taken straight to the IWM and a Telescope Drill Number 3 Mark 1.

 

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30025181

 

Unfortunately an issue between Google Chrome and the RHEL Linux 64bit I use on this machine does not allow me to view the page. I am sure somebody will enlighten us.

Edited August 19, 2013 by AlienFTM

[Tony B]

That sound logical. The easy way to check is use it and see how it ranges.

[ploughman]

Something like this was featured on Telly yesterday with some Women being asked about their wartime service.

Is it a Height finder?

For Anti Aircraft use.