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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Sisteco Prismatic Compass
From: Craig Scott
Date: 2004 Mar 20, 10:23 -0500
From: Craig Scott
Date: 2004 Mar 20, 10:23 -0500
I
wonder if you could use an alternate radioactive source instead of tritium;
maybe some scraped from a smoke detector or from an old clock
face.
Craig
-----Original Message-----
From: Navigation Mailing List [mailto:NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM]On Behalf Of Robert Eno
Sent: Friday, March 19, 2004 08:18
To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM
Subject: [NAV-L] Sisteco Prismatic CompassMany thanks for all of the responses from the various members.It appears that, overall, I am hooped and will have to purchase a new hand-held compass if I want the illumination feature. It is a sad commentary on the way things are made nowadays. No such a thing as replacement parts or, for that matter, instruments that lend themselves to repair.Contrast this to the things made long ago: Take for example, the C.Plath Sextant and accessories. Everything is fastened together with screws of varying sizes. Every component can be removed, opened up and repaired. Nowadays, it is too expensive to design things in this manner. Cheaper to use glue rather than screws. Is that part N/S? Oh well, throw it away and buy a new widget.On a related note, I did a google seach for C.Plath and found to my shock, that they no longer exist; that they were bought out by Sperry (a venerable firm that has been around for some time). I also did a search of Weems and Plath and found that they appear to no longer sell their own model of brass sextant; they now market the Tamaya.Is this the end of the era of the superb craftsmanship of the German sextant? Is Cassens and Plath still around? Are they solvent?I am increasingly feeling like an anachronism. My world is being steamrollered by cheap crap, GPS, and a quick fix (no pun intended).A Friday morning lament. Thanks again for your assistance folks.Robert EnoGood judgement comes from experience and a lot of that comes from bad judgement.-- Texas Bix Bender: A Cowboy's Guide to Life