Mystery object- plane related

[silverthorn2151]

Clearing out our parents house at the moment and I came across this.

Dad had it for decades and if he ever told me what it was, I've forgotten.

Thought I'd try the Borg like knowledge of PH chums for an answer.

A virtual can of Bass Shandy for any information. .

[ATG]

What does the rotary switch's label say bottom left? And what can you see inside the tubes? They seem to be painted black inside which might be to absorb scattered light.

Edited by ATG on Friday 17th November 12:45

[w1bbles]

It looks like it might be ‘ORANGE’?

[silverthorn2151]

It says change which is a strange word

[spitfire-ian]

silverthorn2151 said:

It says change which is a strange word

Definitely looks like Orange to me.

[Eric Mc]

A radar scope viewing tube?

You had to look into old style radars to be able to view the image.

Or possibly sonar scope.

[ATG]

Yes, it can't be "change". The second letter is clearly an R.

Assuming it is "orange", it looks a bit like the knob might be for rotating a section of an internal disc across the horizontal tube to apply filtering to an image ... i.e. you can select a light, dark or orange filter, or no filter (clear).

Hence the question, what can you see down the tubes?

[silverthorn2151]

It does say Orange.

You can look in and there us a mirror.

[FourWheelDrift]

What makes you think it's aircraft related?

[PistonRings]

M17 Telescope Elbow for an M1917 155mm Artillery Cannon ?

[Eric Mc]

FourWheelDrift said:

What makes you think it's aircraft related?

Radar and sonar can be on ships too.

[Eric Mc]

PistonRings said:

M17 Telescope Elbow for an M1917 155mm Artillery Cannon ?

Is that just a wild guess?

[PistonRings]

Eric Mc said:

Is that just a wild guess?

Looks very similar IMO

[silverthorn2151]

When loo,ing into it and rotating the know a disc moves across the lens. If it was orange once its just obscuring now.

I suggested plane re.ated as that's something Dad was interested in. It suggests military to me but its a mystery.

[Eric Mc]

Did he work with aircraft?
Did he serve in the military?

[silverthorn2151]

PistonRings said:

Looks very similar IMO

It does, doesn't it.

[PistonRings]

Sticking with M17 Telescope Elbow

[ATG]

Mirror make perfect sense. Looks rather heavily built for something you'd stick in an aircraft. For something optical to need a mount like that, I expect it needed to withstand a lot of abuse, e.g. big recoil, loads of vibration, squaddies using it as a ladder.

[silverthorn2151]

Eric Mc said:

Did he work with aircraft?
Did he serve in the military?

Nope, he was a plumber who developed an interest probably after running around in Chingford during WW2 picking up shrapnel and making fireworks with unexploded incendiary bombs. (They continually got told off for collecting that stuff)

It's likely just something he happened upon during life. he was a bit of a magpie!

[Eric Mc]

They seem to crop up frequently on second hand sites.

U.S. M17 Elbow Telescope, used with the standard M1917 155mm Howitzer, the French-designed Canon de 155 C modèle 1917 Schneider. The telescope was used to aim the canon properly in various conditions.