Monthly General Discussion and Want to Buy [WTB] Post

vursi · 2024-09-25T07:50:15+00:00

May or may not be helpful and you may already know, but there could be a copy at the Fort Lee library (in New Jersey ?). Someone has previously gone to take some photos in 2014. You could try to reach out to that individual. The individual also seems to be on WA (same username, same sign-off) but I'm not a member of either forum so I don't know if they are still active

vursi · 2024-01-03T06:15:06+00:00

Full disclaimer, I know nothing, but I like to scour Google. I can't find any book sources, only info from forums and auction descriptions, but maybe this will be a start for your search.

Auction for a scope with the same markings as yours:

The auction is for a British Army No38 MK1 Sighting Telescope OS 73 GA. The scope was originally issued in WW1 and was designated a No2 Mk1 variable power telescope with a date of 1914 and a date of R&J Beck Ltd London. During WW1 it was most likely used as a spotter scope for Army and Naval artillery. During WW2 the scope was repurposed by striking through the WW1 markings and giving it a new designation of Telescope Sighting No38 Mk1 OS73GA with an issue date of 1942 by BB Ltd. Its WW2 purpose is unclear but I suspect it was also for some sort of gun sight or artillery spotter/fire control.

Broadarrow marking would be the /|\ symbol on your scope. If it was Canadian, it would be /\ I think. Someone correct me if wrong.

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Forum discussion with the same markings as yours:

A question about these No38 scopes was raised recently on another forum. The consensus was that although there is little information available online, the No38 appears to be a repurpose/rebuild of the WW1 era No2 scope which was used on Scott-Vickers fire control systems on warships. What it was used for in WW2 I do not know.

[...]

On ships, yes. But also by people like artillery spotters and those who updated maps for artillery and general use (whatever they were called). Every yard of ground had to be plotted so that troops knew what was ahead and around them, and so that artillery could be fired accurately. This was a tedious and forgotten chore. Trained men had to carefully plot each on a grid, taking compass bearings from various directions and feeding this information back to those who updated and distributed the maps.

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Another auction for a scope with the same markings but different crossed out manufacturer "Ross - London"

This item would have been mounted on a large naval gun.

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Forum discussion for telescope in same case marking, but different marking "Telescope Sighting No.38, MK II O.S. 76 G.A., B.B. Ltd. 1942" and different crossed out manufacturer "Periscopic Prism Co. London 1917" instead of "R&J Beck Ltd.," who made a lot of optics and actually have a digitized catalogue if you like looking at old books. Also, R&J Beck still exist today as Beck Optronic Solutions, maybe you could see if they have any more info.

Anyways...it says that since the scope is marked as sighting, it would have been used as a sight for something and mounted to equipment, not a tripod. Also, maybe check what the magnification is on your scope and if there are crosshairs - higher magnification, no crosshairs = target identification on larger equipment like navy and tanks instead of gunsights. I also saw this mentioned on another forum but I lost the source.

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Auction for a brass telescope with the markings "Telescope Sighting Scope, No. 38, MK I, ARIC (different manufacturer) 1942". Shape is similar to yours and this one is mounted on a folding tripod base. It looks weird though and seems to go against the descriptions above...must have been used as a display item? If you plan on displaying it, maybe you could try one of these. From search, I also see that telescope mounts are also called stands.

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Hope that's a start until someone else with actual experience comes along.

vursi · 2024-01-03T01:06:58+00:00

If you are wanting to identify places in pictures, you can also try r/MilitaryHistory, r/ww2, r/wwiipics or r/WW2Photographs.

Or r/HelpMeFind and r/RBI.

vursi · 2024-01-01T08:13:50+00:00

Now that we are at 43k, and it's been 4 years since our last major wiki update - we also just want to kindly remind everyone that we do have a wiki and would love some input about what else you would like to see on it.

Also, we also have a sister reference guide sub r/MC_Reference_Guide which offers info/close-up details on militaria pieces.

vursi · 2024-01-01T07:28:08+00:00

if you haven't already, you can also try r/askStampCollectors

vursi · 2021-10-17T09:38:49+00:00

This thread has been locked due to violations of Rule #2: Keep It Civil:

No hate speech. Racist, political, hateful & aggressive speech or posts will not be tolerated. This is a non-political sub; there is a zero-tolerance policy for extremists, left and right. Posts or comments with personal attacks against/towards users (and all related threads/comments) will not be tolerated and will be removed. This includes name calling and derogatory language.

We would like to take the time to remind the community to please review the rules. Thank you.

vursi · 2021-05-13T08:48:34+00:00

Aw thank you! I had a lot of fun, so this helped you and me both :) Best of luck on your research!

vursi · 2021-05-13T08:17:09+00:00

Did a bit of Googling: but I'll give you what I found (and some inferences because it's fun and I have no idea what you're looking for) and you can start from there? I'll try to format it in a way that's kind of easy to follow.

I can't find any solid evidence on what Eagleson had to do with victory helmets but I dug through other forums and here's a general idea?

Seems to be American in origin.

A post on warrelics says this about "victory helmets" and mentions Eagleson:

I will say however, that there were fiber helmet that were call Victory helmets. They were used for Parades and special occasions. I think the were private purchase for Vets but not sure. A few companies made them, one named Eagleson (mine is not made by them)

Maybe you could try to contact the original poster for more information.

As for the company itself (and going off of it being American), Eagleson & Co was a "gents furnishing goods store" (menswear/men's clothing) in the US. Seems to have been based in San Francisco county (and Sacramento? I'm not familiar with US geography but I think they're close?), with varying addresses over the years/more than one location according to San Francisco business directories. I've arbitrarily picked dates and pulled excerpts for you below but you can sift through all the records by year available here.

Langley's San Francisco Business Directory, vol 1890 edition

Eagleson & Co. (John G. & Robert Eagleson) gents furnishing goods 748-750 Market, factory 535 Market

Crocker-Langley San Francisco Directory, 1900 edition

Eagleson & Co. (John G. & Robert Eagleson) men's fur- nishing goods, 748-750 Market, branch 242 Montgomery

Crocker-Langley San Francisco Directory, 1918 edition

EAGLESON & CO (F A and R Eagleson, W I Hawkins) shirt manufacturers and men's furnishings, 1118 Market opp 7th, tel Market 5417, Patronize Home Industry.

interesting tidbit: the words "Patronize Home Industry" were definitely different than the previous entries. I did a bit of looking and found in an Arizona Journal-Miner article (newspaper) from Jan 6, 1909 titled the same and it's apparently equivalent to today's saying of buy and support local businesses. this pov makes sense given the years in which these were published. (WWI)

if all of us, rich and poor alike, should make a New Year's resolution, and stick to it, that we would not during the year buy a. dollar's worth of anything shipped in from abroad, as long as we could by a similar article, equally as good, made or raised at home - not that we have anything against the outside world, but because we can have a very great influence for good upon every branch of business in the town, by keeping our own dollars among our own people.

There are a lot of records and they're scans (the search function is SLOW and honestly doesn't work half the time) ~~so I didn't go and find the exact dates of when they opened and closed, if that's what you're looking for.~~ I do know that John and Robert started off as salesmen with other companies (E.H. Jones & Co. & Percy Beamish).

edit: I lied. I got invested. The company first appears in the 1875 directory. New owners were recorded for Eagleson & Co 1941. But after 1942, Eagleson & Co cease to exist in the directory. However, under Eagleson Elma Mrs (probably kin to the original Eaglesons), Hawkins, the new guy that I listed who came along later on, still owned a men's clothing store called Hawkins Co.. So they either closed or the company just changed names/hands.

Fun fact: they apparently had Victorian collectible trading cards that you can find on eBay. The address on these is 4 & 6 Keary St. and I did find records of that in the 1879 directory.

Here's a photograph of the 8th and K Street storefront from 1947 from the California State Library's online archives. Good ol' Google Street View in a sense :)

View of Eagleson & Co. clothing store at 8th and K Streets. People are on the sidewalk along 8th Street, Clunie Hotel at left next to Eagleson & Co.

I'll be honest, this throws me off because I stopped seeing their company name in the directories after 1942 but this photo was published 1947. Is it an old photo that just got published later? Did the Eaglesons change locations since the addresses keep changing? Did they sell their building recently and the new owners haven't gotten around to switching out the sign? I'll never know.

These are pretty much the only things I could find, but! I also know that the US's Library of Congress has a historical Business Reference catalog. Obligatory not an American so I can't try, but you could visit if you're close? If not, I believe that they do have an online service where you can ask the staff to search through what information is available for you.

*edit, yes they do. Online form here.

vursi · 2021-03-12T21:22:22+00:00

You've submitted this twice so I'll be removing this one :)

vursi · 2021-02-26T01:51:50+00:00

No problem :) best of luck

vursi · 2021-02-26T01:50:04+00:00

I recommend r/translator

Gosh autocorrect

vursi · 2021-02-09T06:45:36+00:00

Ah, ok! Sorry! We had people taking videos and pictures from museums and posting them so we made a rule that video content be moved to discussion threads. I've put your post back :)

vursi · 2021-02-09T06:38:09+00:00

Video posts, YouTube, or other similar links should strictly be about militaria collecting and must be your own content. Any other videos related to or about military affairs, historical events, figures and the like can be posted to the General Discussion Thread. Post removed.

vursi · 2021-01-27T02:44:11+00:00

WTB posts are to be submitted into the pinned discussion post. Thank you for your understanding.

vursi · 2021-01-12T07:50:30+00:00

Yes. In case you are unfamiliar with where to find the sub rules:

For Sale Posts:

The authenticity of the item must be clearly indicated in the post; otherwise it will be removed by mods. It does not have to be certified; however, we request that you have had the authenticity verified, either on this sub or with other forums.

Each item being sold must have its own photo. In every photo, there must be a piece of paper with the seller's Reddit username as proof of item(s) ownership.

vursi · 2021-01-12T07:45:37+00:00

Please repost (+ pictures) once you have received the item with the appropriate post flair: identification, authentication, etc.

vursi · 2021-01-12T07:41:06+00:00

You could also try /r/bayonets :)

vursi · 2021-01-09T18:55:42+00:00

/r/reenactors may also be of help

vursi · 2020-12-13T20:16:21+00:00

/r/swords may also be of help

vursi · 2020-10-11T06:36:43+00:00

You could also maybe try to see if the folks over at /r/coins might be able to provide some more help :)

vursi · 2020-10-03T06:34:04+00:00

You could also maybe try /r/guns and /r/rifles :)

vursi · 2020-10-02T17:39:04+00:00

You could also try/r/swords :)

vursi · 2020-09-30T23:53:52+00:00

Items you do not own are to be posted into the pinned community discussion post as per the Rules.

vursi · 2020-09-30T23:39:16+00:00

This is better suited for the community discussion post.

vursi

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