Binoculars

[Wade Moore]

What was the magnification and diameter of objective lenses for standard issue field binoculars? In WWII it was 6x30, I would assume during the CW it was less? I am looking to purchase some modern binocs that have similar optics to CW glasses that I can use when visiting battlefields. Thanks for the info!

 

[Wade Moore]

What about a pair of replica binoculars? Or would a real pair be better?

 

[captaindrew]

I have no idea, I never looked into it. Maybe @johan_steele he's very knowledgeable about period tools maybe he might know or maybe @ucvrelics has come across some in his collecting.

 

[Package4]

What was the magnification and diameter of objective lenses for standard issue field binoculars? In WWII it was 6x30, I would assume during the CW it was less? I am looking to purchase some modern binocs that have similar optics to CW glasses that I can use when visiting battlefields. Thanks for the info!

I do not believe that they were issue and they were referred to as a double glass not binocs, while a "scope" was simply a glass. Since there was no real issue, there was no real standard. There may be a difference in the signal corp. Officers would typically supply their own accouterments and double glasses from France were highly desired.

 

[johan_steele]

There was no standard issue or regulation pattern. Any used were personal purchase by the individual officer. I've handled several original pairs over the years and I recall them all being French. Most seemed not much better than a set of opera glasses with the biggest about comparable in magnification to my modern Nikon set my father gave me for my HS graduation... 6 or 8 power IIRC. I'm not really certain. Quality was certainly good, far better than I expected but they were a far cry from even WW2 binnoculars.

Binoculars would have been quite expensive at the time. Easily twice the cost of a quality telescope which ranged into the several hundred dollars and when you figure a Private was making just $13 a month... Also keep in mind the optics available at the time were not what we have today; modern optics trace their lineage to the 1920's(?). I want to say prior to that you had Galilean style glasses, don't quote me on that. I know they were actually quite a bit more expensive due to their shorter length and efforts to make them more rugged. As I said I've seen and handled several over the years and was pleasantly surprised by the quality though the clarity... not so much.

Hopefully that makes some sense.

 

[Copperhead-mi]

ANTIQUE CIVIL WAR ERA LEMAIRE FABT PARIS BINOCULARS / FIELD GLASSES | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for ANTIQUE CIVIL WAR ERA LEMAIRE FABT PARIS BINOCULARS / FIELD GLASSES at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

 

[Old Soldier]

They would have been 'straight' optics without prisms and, usually, not hinged. They are not strictly 'Gallilean' which inverts the image (as astronomical telescopes still do to avoid light loss) but more 'Keplerian'. All the lenses will have been quite large as there was no provision to make the smaller lenses seen on modern eyepieces.

My old example is quite small and has no date, but was probably made in the 1860s and was sold as 'Nautical'. Although marked for a local optician, they may well have been made in France. The objective is 45mm and magnification is probably x12 or less. They are NOT 'opera glasses'! The only mechanics are the focusing screw and there is no provision for individual focusing. The phone is only there to give some scale.

 

[Old Soldier]

Just in case of confusion - the eyepiece engravings are 'J. Durkin' & ' Middlesborough'. That is a misspelling of 'Middlesbrough' (Yorkshire, as it was in those days), not 'Middlesborough' (KY)!

 

[3rdBrigade]

Here is a pic of an original pair I have. I can't tell you the specs of the optics, only they are not as "good" as we are used to. However they do the job for scanning distance terrain for large body of troops.

 

[Old Soldier]

Made in France too - which seems to have been the center for production of these binos. The magnification will tell you what their use was for originally - x3 or x5 will be for 'opera glasses' or for watching horse racing ('Le Jockey Club'). Anything more will be for 'field use' - bird-watching or military purposes. Having said that, I am sure that many of the more robust opera glasses would be used by officers in the field.

To find out the magnification, set up a ruler, 1ft will work, but preferably 2 or 3 ft for focus, then walk away and focus until the ruler fills the lens, then measure the distance and divide by the number of feet on the ruler. Mine turned out to be x8. The other factor is the diameter of the lens in millimetres (mm)

The usual method of showing the magnification was an engraving on the eyepiece link '4 verres' or (if German) '4 glaser' = x4, but many have nothing. The earlier ones seem to have the central connecting screws with a narrow slot, rather like the old gunmakers screws. Most move the eyepiece to focus, but a few move the objectives.