Usually I don´t buy british optics, but today was an exception.
I bought a Barr & Stroud FT 32 rangefinder. Serial number 26304.
I know the records exist, but where can I ask to find out who purchased it?
Is it the museum in Glasgow?
I checked the book on B&S rangefinders: Range and vision, no clue as to date. Has a patent date from 1921, so probably mid 1930-ies.
But the purchaser?
The rangefinder has plates all over it, with danish text on how to use it. But, afaik, the danish army only purchased B&S rangefinders after WWII, and they were issued as danish model 1954.
Those had a box like center piece, and are different from the FT 32. WWII models most likely, and probably FT 37 or something like that.
The danish army did try to get to test a B&S early on.
But after dispatching several instruments back and forth between Denmark and Scotland, for over 3 years !!!, without ever receiving an instrument in working order, they gave up and bought Zeiss instead.
So, this one is an oddball.
I bought a Barr & Stroud FT 32 rangefinder. Serial number 26304.
I know the records exist, but where can I ask to find out who purchased it?
Is it the museum in Glasgow?
I checked the book on B&S rangefinders: Range and vision, no clue as to date. Has a patent date from 1921, so probably mid 1930-ies.
But the purchaser?
The rangefinder has plates all over it, with danish text on how to use it. But, afaik, the danish army only purchased B&S rangefinders after WWII, and they were issued as danish model 1954.
Those had a box like center piece, and are different from the FT 32. WWII models most likely, and probably FT 37 or something like that.
The danish army did try to get to test a B&S early on.
But after dispatching several instruments back and forth between Denmark and Scotland, for over 3 years !!!, without ever receiving an instrument in working order, they gave up and bought Zeiss instead.
So, this one is an oddball.
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