Does anyone recognize this article?

With a starting bid of $4.00 why not throw a bid and see what happens. Even if they article is a disapointment how much are you going to lose?

Life is short. Take a chance!

Errol Groff

Looks like it might have run in Popular Mechanics many years ago.

Its from either popular mechanics or popular science. I have the magazine. I'll try and dig it up.

My scanner is broken, but I might be able to scan it elsewhere.

Art

Very likely a white paper from one of the scope makers line - or a former member doing documentation after retirement...

I want to say I have seen his face somewhere. Can' say.

As for worth it - at that price - yes. Just for the optical theory and concepts.

Martin Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH, NRA Life NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

James B. Millard wrote:

Ok, found it in the 1955 edition of the Popular Mechaics DIY encyclopedia. The article is simply entitled "Riflescopes" and I dont see an author mentioned.

Havent read it yet, but looks like an interesting article. I wouldn't pay $4.00 as most of my PM and PS magazines were bought for an average $.50 to $1.00 .

Thats probably an old popular Science or popular mechanics article from the fifties. Back then they didn't have cheap imported scopes.

I built a lot of stuff out of those magazines. I don't know how I managed to to survive some of the stuff I build.

John

The guy pictured looks a lot like a guy that went by the name of Sam Brown who was a regular contributor to Popular Mechanics (PM) and seemed to write a lot of articles that featured the Atlas shaper and mill. PM published collections of articles from the monthly mags in their Shop Notes series, which came out annually from 1905 to around 1960. I have a full set but it would take a while to wade through the various volumes to see if the article is in one of them.

Mike

On Wed, 19 Oct 2005 02:39:58 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, Art quickly quoth:

So, is it in the Dropbox yet, Art?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - If God approved of nudity, we all would have been born naked. ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----

Your Wild & Woody Website Wonk

I certainly don't want anybody to go to any trouble. Our local university library has Popular Mechanics back to 1913. I'll take a look as soon as I get a chance.

Thanks for the help!

Brad

On Wed, 19 Oct 2005 07:19:52 -0600, with neither quill nor qualm, "James B. Millard" quickly quoth:

Wow, now THAT is what I call a LIBRARY! I'm jealous.

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On the subject of rifle scopes, I have a cheap K-Mart scope that someone gave me. It was used on a shotgun (not by me, honest), which shattered the reticle. Two questions: a. how does it come apart? and b. is it possible to make a replacement reticle with simple cross hairs easily? If anyone has some thoughts, I'll dig it out and supply more details. Thanks.

consistently have used reticles at good prices. I haven't bought reticles, but I've bought other optical goods, they were very painless pleasant transactions. Next day shipping, perfect packing, prompt communications yada. I bought a reasonable condition coated 50 mm objective (in cell) in the last purchase, and I think it was $7 or some such figure.

I recall that "Procedures in Experimental Physics" (the John Stong book that somebody mentioned earlier in the day: Lindsay) has a section on using spider silk to make a reticle. I believe that most folks now stretch single polypropylene fibers.

(ping James Lerch, Bob May, other of the lurking ATMs?) anybody done this?

Adam Smith, Midland ON

I once redid a reticle using spider silk. It was actually quite easy to do, using black widow silk..of which we have a rather large surplus of here in the desert..

I used a tiny drop of airplane model superglue to hold each end of both strands across the reticle ring, but it was a stone bitch getting them perfectly oriented at 12/3/6/9 oclock and had to redo it about 10 times..and never did get it perfect, but shot the scope for about 10 yrs on a 243

Not having any inert gas (at the time)..it did fog on me once under sever conditions. Normally they are nitrogen filled..I wonder if Argon would work?

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

I second Surplus Shed. I've bought some nice optics from them at very reasonable costs. They have alot of millitary surplus optics.

All my orders have been shipped prompty and have been properly packed.

Simple cross hair reticles are often just two wires. The PM riflescope article uses #44 (.002) magnet wire. (BTW I found a scanner at the lab at uni, so I will scan and post the article Thursday).

I've used tech pan film to make custom reticles for cameras and optical instruments. The thing is these arn't subject to the jolts a rifle scope is. So I dont know how well this method would work in a rifle. It also requires darkroom equipment and techniques. Might be beyond the resources available to some. Heres a site that discusses constructing some for some mp cameras:

I think if you ask this in one of the astronomy forums/groups, where people build their optics all the time, you would probably get some excellent suggestions as well.

Art

Yes. Nitrogen is used because it's cheap, but any inert gas will work, if it's bone dry. Dry is the key.

Joe Gwinn

I've played around with cheap scopes a little. If your time is worth nothing, go ahead. They all come apart a little differently, but some are staked together and it can take more effort than it's worth. It's usually some variation on remove eyepiece, remove turret adjustments and, sometimes, the turret and remove the erector assembly/reticle holder inside. They're all different.

As for reticles, spider silk has been mentioned, I've seen tungsten wire used, you could supposedly get it in sizes smaller than silk. It was mentioned in a project for making an optical micrometer for measuring star spacing on telescopes. Amateur Scientist, I believe. Probably the source for that is no longer active.

Weaver scopes had chemically milled reticles made from sheet brass, some of the other makes did likewise. All you'd need there would be a stencil and some photo resist, along with the etchant of choice. High end scopes frequently have etched glass reticles, you can do fancier patterns that way, too. Preferably anti-reflection coated afterwards. All this wil cost you a lot more than picking up a used cheapy at a gun show, though.

Stan

Yes, argon will work really nicely as an inert atmosphere inside your scope. Even welding grade is still low in water content and was probably filled from the same tank as the high purity lab grade bottles at the same time. Just didn't get the price tag!

The argon will also allow a little more UV light to pass through the scope, but when you allow for the distance to the target and the light path all the way from there, you won't ever know the difference.

It's easy to rig up a fitting to your scope with a plastic bag, a pair of scissors to snip the other end of the bag and a couple of rubber bands while you complete the assembly of the scope. You can even use your welding flow regulator to give you a nice steady flow to purge the lot. If you are going to do it inside, allow for fresh air to breath for yourself. Oxygen deprivation will just send you to sleep......

If you don't have spider webs available that suit, and the Americans made a pretty fancy bombsight that was security classified during WW2 with spider silk threads, you can make "stretched sprue" like most model aircraft makers with a candle and a bit of spare sprue and a gentle pull.

Many other reticles are engraved or ruled into a piece of glass.

Hope this helps, Peter

Yes. Welding argon has a dew point of about -90F.

Ya might put a bit of desiccant inside as well, to cope with any minor leakage over time and/or residual solvent vapor from glue used during assembly.

Email me if you'd like a packet or two. I bought a "minimum order" for my kid's camera gear when he did a photo tour of the (damp) UK, have a lifetime supply. It's in little 1 oz packets, could easily be repackaged into a little capsule made of a cigarettte paper or ???