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Hello All, Thankyou for some very interesting discussions. This is something I've been meaning to post for quite a while. Its the result of an interview with Frank Bartlett who worked at Hughes & Son during WW2. It explains how to tell who made your sextant etc. Anyway a few notes about Frank Bartlett first. Frank worked at Henry Hughes & Son from 1939 to 1943 and installed the bubble chambers into the MkIX Bubble Sextant, there were also about 6 or 7 others doing the same work. Frank was the only one to sign his name or initials under the Bubble Chamber so I'm sure someone with an extensive collection like your own would probably have one with his mark hidden underneath the bubble chamber. While Frank was there, there were about 80 people working in the Hughes factory as well as 3 watchmakers (presumably working on the clockwork mechanism of the Mk IX A...etc). Frank worked at the factory from 7am to 8pm, 7days a week. He arrived in the dark and left in the dark. There was no excuse not to be there except for attending church on Sundays. Frank recalls a tour of some Russian Officers coming to visit the factory at one time. He also recalls Sir Francis Chichester and P.F Everitt as gentlemen who would visit from time to time but never spoke to them. As the war progressed the factory jobs were gradually taken over by women and Frank joined the RAF and was posted as a driver to India and Ceylon.
Now, about the serial numbers on the MkIX sextants. I think the attachment explains a fair bit. But to explain a couple of things first.
The sextants were made by three companies. The first was Hughes and Son the 2nd was Smiths and the 3rd was Venners (They originally made time switches).
Generally speaking all 3 have a different format for writing the serial number.
Hughes writes "SERIAL:" in full followed by the serial number.
Smiths writes "SER:" followed by the serial number or "No." followed by the serial number.
Venners always has a "(V)' in brackets.
I hope this helps and or is interesting to you. The attached page has a couple of extra bits that I haven't mentioned. If anyone has any questions I'll be only too glad to help if possible. Thanks Matt
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