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Dear Engineer,

Thanks for your interesting reply. Let me add few comments
and questions.

1. It is hard to understand how could SNO-M be produced
on confiscated machinery. C. Plath was made in Hamburg.
Hamburg never was in the Soviet occupation zone.
It is true that they took some Freiberger machinery and
developed SNO-T as a Friberger clone, but there is a lot
of difference between Freiberger and SNO-T, even the
telescope fork does not match.

If SNO-M is indeed a C. Plath clone,
it was probably licensed
from the Gremans in 1930-s when the Soviets imported a lot
of technology from Germany.
Do you know when production of SNO-T started?

The machinery taken by reparations could
arrive only in 1945.

2. I have pictures of several C. Plaths of this type from
the same seller. All certificates look like computer-printed
forms filled with nonsense, the certificates are definitely
fake. But on the sextants themselves,
I am still inclined to think that
they are likely made by adding C. Plath arms to the SNO
frames.



Alex.

On Wed, 4 Feb 2009, engineer wrote:

>
>
>
> On Feb 5, 4:14�am, alex  wrote:
> > Dear List members,
> > I am interested in your opinion about these two sextants on e-bay:
> > 110344551156
> > and 300290552493. Is this C.Plath a fake (or assembled of parts of
> > different sextants?)
> >
> > We already discussed this question several years ago (on the old
> > list). This seller
> > sold several such C. Plath sextants since then. It looks almost
> > completely like
> > an SNO-M, to the minute detail, including the box construction,
> > accessories etc.
> > The certificates of C. Plath are definitely fake; they look like
> > printed on a computer and filled with
> > nonsense. The only difference between this C. Plath and SNO-M is the
> > arm and the drum.
> > This is what puzzles me.
> >
> > I know this C. Plath seller, I bought several things from him in the
> > past and he makes an impression
> > of an honest person. He insists that his C. Plath's are genuine. One
> > possible explanation is that
> > those early SNO-M were made in Soviet Union on German machinery, and
> > they are really copies of
> > some C. Plath model. Or could the parts of these sextants be
> > interchangeable to such extent, that someone
> > attached a C.Plath arm with the drum to an SNO frame???
> >
> > Alex.
>
> I think the war-time C Plaths and the SNO-Ms almost certainly are the
> same sextant except for the luminescent magnifier on the SNO-M. I
> believe the frames were literally cast in the same mould and machined
> on confiscated machinery in the Soviet sphere. There are other minor
> differences, but all the pressure die-cast parts including the frame
> are the same. The index arm on the SNO-M is an aluminium pressing
> whereas the C Plath had a flat plate.
>
> The question as to whether the C Plath up for sale is a faked
> conversion of a SNO-M is another matter. There are blank spaces
> available at the ends of a SNO-M limb to stamp numbers and logo. The
> index arm would have to be replaced as this is where the serial number
> is found on the SNO-M. In a wartime photograph of the sextant type in
> use, the index arm is in two parts, with the index arm expansion
> screwed on to a strip index arm.
>
> The certificate on the putative C Plath doesn't make a lot of sense
> as, although the serial numbers match, it is said to have a vernier
> reading to 6 " when there is no vernier on the instrument, and to have
> two telescopes, a x 7 and a x 1. Perhaps the latter was a sighting
> tube, but  is there anywhere to house it? The micrometer drum is the
> same as on my SNO-M, except for the colour.
>
> It is my firm view that when you buy a SNO-M you get a C Plath in all
> but name and, for similar reasons, if you buy a SNO-T you get an early
> Freiberger Prazisionsmechanik trommelsextant with Zeiss optics . There
> is a blog about these USSR sextants on my website at www.sextantbook.com
>
> Bill Morris
>
> >
>
>



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