Off topic but what are they?

[Wishiknewmore]

Hello
I know this is very off topic, but it is Vintage and it’s Christmas!
I have been set a challenge to discover what these are, as the owner does not know either.
The eye piece end is magnified, the square ends appear to be plain glass, I think there is either a prism or a mirror at about 45 degrees on each side
In my mind I have created the idea that they may be for looking at stereo photographs, but without any real basis
I cannot find any markings whatsoever!
Help!
Philip

[duncanlowe]

My immediate thought is opera glasses.

[HamishBoxer]

Beat me to it! that was my first thought too.

[paulsherwin]

They won't work as opera glasses without lenses in both positions. My guess is that Philip is right and this is some sort of stereoscopic viewer. There were a lot of competing systems. They were mostly bought by tourists, who could buy 3D 'postcards' to take home with them. There was a very popular system which used a rotating cardboard disk containing lots of small stereo transparencies. A great aunt of mine had one, and would buy disks for it whenever she went on holiday to Switzerland.

[Wishiknewmore]

I thought that too, but on looking through them the "focal length" is only about 12 inches, the image is split until the angle is adjusted and then the image is reversed....ie printing would read backwards
Philip
ps this is before Pauls posting

[G6Tanuki]

The 'functional' styling along with the lack of any obvious handle or any focusing mechanism makes me think they were probably intended for some application where they'd be fixed into a frame or support and whatever it was you were meant to be viewing would then be kept at the 'right' focus-distance.

I'm suspecting maybe some technical application like microfiche- or X-ray viewing?

[Hartley118]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

They won't work as opera glasses without lenses in both positions. My guess is that Philip is right and this is some sort of stereoscopic viewer. There were a lot of competing systems. They were mostly bought by tourists, who could buy 3D 'postcards' to take home with them. There was a very popular system which used a rotating cardboard disk containing lots of small stereo transparencies. A great aunt of mine had one, and would buy disks for it whenever she went on holiday to Switzerland.

One of these perhaps. This View-Master was very popular in its day. Interestingly, bringing it back to our Vintage Radio topic, it was made by Salford Electrical Instruments, a GEC subsidiary. See https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Salfor...al_Instruments for more familiar Salford Electrical products.

Martin

[Argus25]

The reversed image and close viewing distance might be a clue, maybe they were used in a photo processing darkroom to inspect negatives on a light box, or something of that order.

[paulsherwin]

Originally Posted by Hartley118

One of these perhaps. This View-Master was very popular in its day. Interestingly, bringing it back to our Vintage Radio topic, it was made by Salford Electrical Instruments, a GEC subsidiary.

The ViewMaster name certainly sounds familiar, but my great aunt's viewer was different from the one in your picture. Possibly it was just a later model.

[Refugee]

It looks like a possible "posh" one of these.

[Nymrod121]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

They won't work as opera glasses without lenses in both positions. My guess is that Philip is right and this is some sort of stereoscopic viewer. There were a lot of competing systems. They were mostly bought by tourists, who could buy 3D 'postcards' to take home with them. There was a very popular system which used a rotating cardboard disk containing lots of small stereo transparencies. A great aunt of mine had one, and would buy disks for it whenever she went on holiday to Switzerland.

I inherited my grandparents' 'Viewmaster' (built-in backlight - 2 x 1.5V batteries - D-size) in its original wooden box plus several of the circular discs (Canada views etc.) to which you refer, Paul.


If anyone's interested, I'll post some photos.


Best wishes
Guy

[Karen O]

I can see what look like mirrors or prisms in the rectangular end.

Do they perform a lateral shift of each eye's view, so that you can merge two (stereoscopic) images without having to go cross-eyed?

[ms660]

It might be part of a mirror (reflection) stereoscope used for analysing aerial photo's, the stand etc obviously missing.

Lawrence.

Viewmaster, that brings back a few memories, 3D pictures on an aluminium and paper laminated disk (I was only 10 or 11 and even then a dismantler wanting to know how things worked or where done), the photos where on 16mm reversal film, Kodachrome by the "etched" look of the emulsion side. Isn't memory a wonderful thing.

[Wishiknewmore]

Karen
Yes they do perform a lateral shift when adjusting
Philip

[SiriusHardware]

The clue surely must be in the fact that the 'elbow' joint allows the two tubes to be either parallel, diverging or converging, unlike 'normal' binoculars where the tubes can be brought closer together or further apart, but always stay parallel to each other.

[ms660]

Re: Post 13....Mirror stereoscope:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZkmXEFw7BE

Lawrence.

[Wishiknewmore]

Thanks everybody

You begin to think Google will find you a picture of everything...but I haven't found it yet!

But I will go for the version of a stereoscope, possibly hand held portable?

thanks again

Philip

[Andrew2]

If there was some kind of calibtration or adjustment wheel, I'd say it was a range-finder. But there isn't so I won't!

[Nymrod121]

Re. my earlier post (#11), here are some pictures for anybody that might be interested.
The HP2s are no longer with me ...
Best wishes
Guy