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Zeiss Turact with tickmarks and unusual eyepiece

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suso View Drop Down
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    Posted: August/24/2011 at 15:29
I own a 1918 vintage Zeiss Turact 8x24 pair of binoculars  that I inherited from a family member, and I am curious about a couple of features in it.

Question #1: Tickmarks.
On the bottom, the binoculars have two metal plates showing, respectively, a standing soldier and a soldier on horseback.  These figures have horizontal lines ("tickmarks") that start at zero at the top of the head in both figures, and end at 1300 for the feet of the standing soldier and at about 1800 for the hooves of the horse.  (See http://home.comcast.net/~dapena/binoculars/tickmarks.jpg )  Since these binoculars were designed for military use (1918 vintage), I suspect that the tickmarks serve to estimate the distance to a standing person or to a person on horseback, but I can't quite figure out how the method worked.  The tickmarks are spaced at the same distance apart for every 100 units.  All the methods that I can speculate would require a non-linear scale, so they don't fit.

Question #2: Eyepiece.
The right eyepiece has an extra lens that can be brought in by turning a little wheel on the eyepiece.  (See http://home.comcast.net/~dapena/binoculars/eyepiece.jpg )  My picture shows this extra lens half-way into place.  When the extra lens is in place, the image stays as sharp as before, but you now see an equally sharp ghost image next to the original image, like with the mineral called "Iceland spar".  (You see double.)  If you rotate the extra lens, the ghost image rotates around the original image.

I would appreciate any responses to my questions #1 and #2.  Maybe they are related??
Suso
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FrankD View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote FrankD Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August/24/2011 at 20:32
suso,
 
I cannot help you with your questions. My apologies. Vintage binoculars aren't my cup of tea. If one of the others here doesn't have an answer or two for you then you might want to try over on birdforum. I have read several vintage binocular discussions in past years and someone may have more info on that model.
 
Hope this helps.
Frank
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suso View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote suso Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August/26/2011 at 15:22
Thanks, I'll try birdforum.
Suso
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote suso Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August/26/2011 at 23:59
I'm happy to say that the folks in birdforum were indeed able to solve my problems!  See  ...

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?p=2226831&posted=1#post2226831

Thanks to you too, for directing me to the right place.
Suso
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