Old military object

CoolFrayers

CoolFrayers

Full Member
Oct 24, 2006
114
28
Bloomsburg, Pa
Hello. My wifes Grandfather passed away recently, he was a WWII vet and has a ton of stuff. This object that he had has us stumped. It takes 2 size D batteries and the two tubes on it have a clear plastic in them. So when it is turned on, the light travels through the tubes like fiber optics. It looks like it clamps on to something to light up two parts for vision purposes at night; but what does it attatch to?
Any ideas? Feel free to email us:[email protected].
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Sorry for the fuzzy pictures, the camera was a Christmas present which was replaced after taking the pics, hehe.
 

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It's not commonly known but there were several types of night vision scopes or aparatus available during WWII. It would help if you knew what he did during the war but I found a description that kind of sounds like your item.

quote;
Night glasses are telescopes or binoculars with a large diameter objective. Large lenses can gather and concentrate light, thus intensifying light with purely optical means and enabling the user to see better in the dark than with naked eye alone. Often night glasses also have a fairly large exit pupil of 7 mm or more to let all gathered light into the user's eye. However, many people can't take advantage of this because of the limited dilation of the human pupil. To overcome this, soldiers were sometimes issued atropine eyedrops to dilate pupils. Before the introduction of image intensifiers, night glasses were the only method of night vision, and thus were widely utilised, especially at sea. Second World War era night glasses usually had a lens diameter of 56 mm or more with magnification of seven or eight. Major drawbacks of night glasses are their large size and weight.

The ones I have seen were for snipers and had a real oddball battery system but if your Veteran was in the Navy that might explain what you have....just a guess. the link; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_vision
 

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I left a message with my in-laws to get any information off of it. If I remember, it did say something about it being an instument illuminator, don't quote me on that however.
He was in the Army. A rather famous old guy that had a lot of stories written about him. He had a German in his scopes, and the German had him lined up for a perfect shot. To make a long story short, they both shot each other; he was shot through the neck. Then, they helped each other to survive.
Thanks for the help.
 

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Nightvision? Nightvison for what? It clamps onto something, the question is, what does it clamp onto?
It illuminates "something", but what? The light it puts out is very very low, so detection would not be a problem I figure. Which, also tells me that it may be an out door application.
Thanks for the input gypsyheart. :)
 

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I think trk5capt is on track. It looks like a night lite for a gunsight. I've seen a smaller version on mortars I think. Tony
 

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It definetly looks like a "low light illuminator " looks to have 5 points of low lite illumination, possible for guages or adjustments on some type of equipment etc. It also has quick release mounts, so possibly an add on to an allready manufactored model or could be to have been used on severial different pieces of equip. With that type of mount don`t think it would have been a piece of equip that took heavy shock, meaning mortars, cannons etc. Look it over real good there should be a Mil Spec # somewhere, or possibly a manu name and mil ID # for them. Check inside the battery cap for that info, its sometimes put in an area where wear won`t rub it off.
 

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Ok....I could be way off base here....didnt look real close ...because I dont get into WWll items ...but saved it just the same .......I have one buried like that somewhere in this mess....There should be a battery pack that is worn on the soldiers back that goes with it.....I will start digging.....I could have something else entirely...but we will see
 

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I have to drive down by my In-Laws tomorrow, ( oh yay...sigh, lol)
So, I will take down my good camera to get some good shots. I will also write down any and all information on the booger. The quest is not over yet!
 

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Gypsy I think you have a suitcase nuclear bomb. Run like he11!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry, couldn't help myself.
 

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WOW gypsy, that looks sweat, orginal night vision scope, unless i mis my guess (could be a later version) that also switches to infra-red or heat. Def looks like a rifle mounted, some 50 cal sniper rifles use similar ones now. Take that to a large gun show u might be able to get 1,000. - 1,500 for it easy.
 

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gypsyheart, you are not a dope. I mean, now since you dug it out you might as well make good use of it- aim it towards your neighbors windows at night :P

Seriously, thank you for taking the time to look, I really appreciate it.
 

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gypsyheart said:
Ok I am a dope ....This is what I have
Click to expand...
Gypsy, you're not a dope. That's a vietnam era starlight scope. A very cool item. It's night vision, right church, wrong pew.
 

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gypsyheart said:
It has a back battery pack that weighs more than I do...geez those guys were tough....
Click to expand...
Gypsy, I Believe That Night Vision Was Not In Use Before Viet Nam, At Least That Was When I Became Aware Of It, Although I Never Got To Use It, I Was Just A Grunt, But Our Snipers & Special Forces Had Them. trk5capt...
 

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