Missile guidance magnifying glass

[Spaceinvader]

I've got a very cool piece here! This belongs to my father, and he told me about it the other day, and its a very interesting story (if you wanna hear it just tell me, im in a bit of a rush now!), but its some kinda of (what we would call) a magnifying glass. It was made by Lietz lights, they where a German manufacturer, then moved to canada shortly after WW2. They are now owned by Raytheon I believe. Its about 43mm wide, and 4-6mm thick, because it is curved. It has a few chips around the edge but it is old. It is very high precision, and is incredibly good. It was made to be used in some kind of missle.Thought some of you guys might be interested! -Rhys

 

[apfsds]

That is really a great artifact! I wonder if there is a way to ID the missile it was built for? Really great that your father preserved it so well.

I have something similar and was told it was removed from a US made bomb used in Operation Desert Storm era and had a TV camera sitting behind it so you can watch the bomb up to the point of impact. It weighs about 4 pounds and has some type of special coating on it.

Jason




Here is another optic system I used to have. This one was sold to me as coming from some type of missile.

 

[Spaceinvader]

Those are realy nice pieces Jason. Its amazing how precise some of those have to be. My father said at the factory, they had a building, inside the buidling, and was on large springs. It had 2 doors to get in, and it was VERY carefully monitored, temperature, humidity, everything. Then, there was a lathe like machine spinning the piece of glass against very very fine sanding abrasive, and the lather was floating ona bed of air. Like an air hockey table! Its so much time and effort, just to be destroyed! But still very interesting!

Rhys