todd
Junior Member
Posts: 61 
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Post by todd on Feb 17, 2011 21:49:50 GMT 1
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Post by Richard Fisher on Feb 17, 2011 22:35:55 GMT 1
That's interesting! That's the document that IMA were shipping with their sets of night sights.
Richard
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Post by woodsy on Feb 19, 2011 1:38:58 GMT 1
I have just received the following provenance on my sight set from the vendor: "Corp A R Kininmont 10/2667 (aged 22 on volunteering) promoted to Sgt in the field, Gun No 1. 2nd NZ Machine gun Coy serving 2nd Wellington Section, NZ Infantry Brigade - gun issued with MkI night sights whilst in reserve in the Ploegsteert Wood sector until 15th March 1917 when they went to the Wulverghem area in readiness for the battle of Messines. His gun plus 3 others were assigned to the 1st Otago Battalion for the battle. It was the first time a machine gun barrage had been used in an attack and several lessons were learnt proving its success. The gun (plus sights) were used at various other engagements, and were in position for the start of the 3rd battle for Ypres at La Basseville on the 31st July 1917, moving on to Broodseinde-Menin road battle on 4th October. The attacked was launched at 6am on a 13km front by 4 ANZAC divisions (3 Australian, 1 NZ) - Australian casualties 6500, NZ 1700. The gun was involved in various other engagements through to the Cambria-Hindenberg Line battle in Sept/Oct 1918, leading to the last battle of the war (4th - 11th November 1918) for the NZMGC." I have aked the vendor if he has a photo of his dad that I could also display with sights. It is very pleasing to get such provenance for an item.  |
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Post by woodsy on Feb 20, 2011 0:10:28 GMT 1
The attached photo shows my two sets of luminous sights (Vickers and Hotchkiss). The Hotchkiss set only has the front sight and I am not certain if there should be a rear sight as well as there is not much room left in the tin. The missing set is for the Lewis gun! Does anyone have an example for the Lewis?  |
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Post by NZ L1A1 Collector on Feb 22, 2011 6:52:21 GMT 1
Woodsy, report in mate and let every one know your ok. In case those of you haven't heard. Christchurch, New Zealand was SLAMMED with a 6.3 earthquake 10 km from the center of Christchurch and only 5 kms deep at 12:51pm NZSDT. Due to the shallow nature of this quake the damage is extensive. The quake back in September (7.1) was 30 km away and at a depth of 33 kms and only cause damage to buildings. This one has killed, at this stage 65 people and it looks like there will be more. you can check out the earthquakes at this this website www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz/today |
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Post by Peter Wells on Feb 22, 2011 7:01:19 GMT 1
Thinking of you and yours Rod.
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Post by woodsy on Feb 22, 2011 7:22:35 GMT 1
I am very pleased to report that we are alive and well! We are about 30 K's out of the city which is far enough to avoid any damage, although we were well shaken. April was driving home from work and sitting at traffic lights when it struck and her car jumped up and down and went sideways into a car in the next lane. One of my collecting mates had a press fall on him in a workshop and he is in hospital with a crushed shoulder. We are still trying to make contact with friends and family in town but the phones are out. The death toll is sadly still climbing, and we are well over the 'novelty' of earthquakes! Thank you for your concern.
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Post by NZ L1A1 Collector on Feb 22, 2011 7:48:56 GMT 1
Great to hear you and April are ok, thank you for taking the time to update us all.
Do you know if Robbie T is ok?
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Post by woodsy on Feb 22, 2011 8:27:35 GMT 1
Kevin, Robbie lives out of town now in a modern house so he should be OK. I will advise if I hear to the contrary.
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Post by wfschaefer on Feb 23, 2011 0:42:48 GMT 1
I also have a boxed set of the Mk1 sights. I acquired them in a trade several years ago. Thanks to Richard and Peter in making a copy of the instructions available.
Thanks to
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Post by kevind on Jun 29, 2011 3:06:58 GMT 1
Hello All, I can contribute a little background on luminous sights. The Firms and Factories List of 31 March 1917 shows there were luminous sights purchased for Vickes, Lewis and Hotchkiss guns. Each set included both fore and rear sights which were not always supplied by the same manufacturer. Quantities ordered late in 1916 included Vickers 19,000 sets, Hotchkiss 2,500 and Lewis 21,000. My particular interest is luminous sights for Lewis guns. LOC 18086 that introduced the sights has very little detail only that the LOC was issued separately which usually means the content is sensitive or classified. To date, I have been unable to find any descriptive information on these sights. Can anybody help? Kind regards. kevind |
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Post by woodsy on Jun 29, 2011 21:25:02 GMT 1
Thank you for the interesting info. Based on your figures the Lewis set should be the most common but I have never seen one. Please post a photo of the Lewis set if your find one. |
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Post by kevind on Jun 30, 2011 0:05:19 GMT 1
Hello All,
Here is a bit more info on luminous sights, predominately for the Lewis and having some flow on effect for Hotchkiss an Vickers. The following description taken from "The Handbook for the .303-in Lewis Gun, Marks I and II dated February 1918 might help somebody identify parts they hold, etc. Sights, Luminous, Fore and Back:
These sights are used for night firing.
The foresight is clamped to the proteecting wings of the foresight on the clamp ring of the gun and is positioned by the gun foresight. The vertical blade contains a luminous tube exposeed so as to be seen from the rear end of the gun.
The back sight is clipped to the tangent sight slide of the gun when the leaf is folded down. A rectangular aperture is formed, on each side of which a luminous tube is fixed horizontally, also exposed so as to be seen from the rear end of the gun.
For protection when off the gun, these sights are carried in a small tin box fitted to take them. The box is carried in the spare parts bag.
The Luminous sights remained in servicfe until 1924 when they were withdrawn from use by LOC A 139.
For more info please have a look at www. milpubs.com.au
Would still like a photograph of the fore and rear sights and any other technical info that is out there.
Kind regards.
kevind
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Post by kevind on Jul 20, 2011 2:32:36 GMT 1
I can now add a little more on luminous sights for machine guns. The common theme is Radium, a highly radioactive material discovered by Madam Marie Curie and her husband Piere in 1898. Radium glows in the dark and it is this material that is used in each of the luminous sights. Luminous sights using Radium were developed for SMLE rifles, Vickers ground guns, Lewis and Hotchkiss guns. I have put a listing of the machine gun variants on www.milpubs.com.au I do have some info on the rifle sights if anybody is interested. Also included in the list is the night sights for Vickers guns that did not contain Radium. I welcome any feed back that you may have. Earlier posts to this forum and my own research indicates photographs and technical info on these sights is scarce. I have identified some technical info an the Radium tubes and once I have that I shall advise further. Can anybody, who has a set of luminous sights, tell me whether they still glow in the dark? I understand Radium has a radioactive half life of 1600 years?  ? Kind regards. kevind |
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Post by andrewupton on Jul 20, 2011 17:51:49 GMT 1
"Can anybody, who has a set of luminous sights, tell me whether they still glow in the dark? I understand Radium has a radioactive half life of 1600 years? ?" Whilst I don't own a set of sights, I do have my grandfathers WW2 issue RAF pocketwtach, which I believe also used radium to illuminate the hands and numbers. When I originally was given it about 10 years ago it would still glow very little at night, and since then has ceased to glow at all in the dark at all, so I would have thought for something 20+ years older the chances of it still glowing would be minimal. |
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