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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
What does it mean "tropicalized"?
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2014 Oct 24, 19:00 +0000
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2014 Oct 24, 19:00 +0000
It is well-known that SNO-T in the Soviet sextant means:
S - Sextant
N - for Navigation
O - with an illumination device ("Osvetitel")
T - Tropicalized.
What did they exactly mean by "tropicalized" ?
I have only conjectures.
1. Both SNO-M and SNO-T have the unique magnifier
with luminous paint, so it works for illumination of the scales.
The manuals say that the scales themselves are covered with this paint,
but I don't believe them. It is the magnifier that is covered. Inside surface of it.
They may have had some new paint composition on SNO-T to withstand high temperatures
and humidity.
2. SNO-M and SNO-T are radically different designs (the first one is the clone of C. Plath,
the second of Freiberger). The most conspicuous feature of Freibergers and SNO-T is the
completely enclosed worm. Can this have something to do with "tropicalization"?
To prevent some insects entering between the arc and the worm??
:-)
I always thought thsat most of those tiny insects live in Canada and Soviet Arctic regions:-)
What else could they mean?
Does anyone know when Freiberger started to produce sextants?
I have never seen pre WW II Freibergers.
Alex.
