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    Re: What does it mean "tropicalized"?
    From: Ken Gebhart
    Date: 2014 Oct 26, 17:20 -0500
    Alex,
    I don’t know.  I had bought a SNO-T at Capt O.M. Watts store in London a year before.  (Which, BTW I would be willing to sell for $600 or thereabouts. It has never been used. Only kept in a desk drawer for the purpose of checking if other accessories would fit on it.) It had labels from Sewill’s of Liverpool on it but no factory certificate other than Sewill’s.  A year after the St. Pete trip, I started getting faxes from the factory saying they wanted to advertise the sextant in our catalog. I explained that’s not the way it works in catalogs. A year later, they wanted to meet with me at the London Boat Show if I was going (which I was).  I met the two in the hotel lobby in front of a roaring fire. They explained that they had purchased the factory, and that the older one was the new director, and the younger was the Operations officer.  I offered to buy them a pint, and they said it was good because the younger one had just turned 21,  The older one was 22.  We exchanged pleasantries, but nothing ever came from the meeting. 
     
    I will leave it to you my Russian friend to conjecture what might have been going on.
     
    Ken
    On Oct 24, 2014, at 5:36 PM, Alexandre Eremenko wrote:


    Ken,
    
    Several years later, I had a telephone conversation
    
    with a factory director (I don't know whether this was the same one),
    
    and he told me so much nonsense that I am not surprised with
    
    the information about the paint:-)
    
    
    
    However I was able to conclude from the conversation that they did not make them
    
    anymore. Few years later I wrote to them, and received a reply confirming this.
    
    
    
    You may be right about bribing.
    
    But another explanation is that they were not producing sextants already in 1992.
    
    Did you notice the year on the sextant they showed you?
    
    
    
    Alex.
    
    ________________________________________
    
    From: NavList@fer3.com [NavList@fer3.com] on behalf of Ken Gebhart [NoReply_Gebhart@fer3.com]
    
    Sent: Friday, October 24, 2014 4:31 PM
    
    To: eremenko---.edu
    
    Subject: [NavList] Re: What does it mean "tropicalized"?
    
    
    
      When I was at the factory in St. Petersburg in 1992, they brought our
    
    a SNO-T that I was interested in importing.  The factory director
    
    proudly explained that the gray box paint was resistant to nuclear
    
    radiation. I never could get a reasonable price to import them; probably
    
    because I did not personally bribe the Director.
    
    
    
    Ken
    
    
    
    
    
    On 10/24/14 2:16 PM, Alexandre Eremenko wrote:
    
    > It is well-known that SNO-T in the  Soviet sextant means:
    
    >
    
    > S - Sextant
    
    > N - for Navigation
    
    > O - with an illumination device ("Osvetitel")
    
    > T - Tropicalized.
    
    >
    
    > What did they exactly mean by "tropicalized" ?
    
    > I have only conjectures.
    
    >
    
    > 1. Both SNO-M and SNO-T have the unique magnifier
    
    > with luminous paint, so it works for illumination of the scales.
    
    > The manuals say that the scales themselves are covered with this paint,
    
    > but I don't believe them. It is the magnifier that is covered. Inside surface of it.
    
    > They may have had some new paint composition on SNO-T to withstand high temperatures
    
    > and humidity.
    
    >
    
    > 2. SNO-M and SNO-T are radically different designs (the first one is the clone of C. Plath,
    
    > the second of Freiberger). The most conspicuous feature of Freibergers and SNO-T is the
    
    > completely enclosed worm. Can this have something to do with "tropicalization"?
    
    > To prevent some insects entering between the arc and the worm??
    
    > :-)
    
    > I always thought thsat most of those tiny insects live in Canada and Soviet Arctic regions:-)
    
    >
    
    > What else could they mean?
    
    >
    
    > Does anyone know when Freiberger started to produce sextants?
    
    > I have never seen pre WW II Freibergers.
    
    >
    
    > Alex.
    
    >
    
    >
    
    >
    
    > 
    
    > 
    
    >
    
    >
    
    
    
    
    
    :
    
    http://fer3.com/arc/m2.aspx/What-does-it-mean-tropicalized-Gebhart-oct-2014-g29056
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    


       
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