Original German WWII Panzer Tank Em 0.9m R "Scissor" Stereoscopic Rangefinder by Carl Zeiss (blc) - A.A.F. Tank Museum

Original Items: Only One Set Available. This is a lovely example of a German WWII Panzertruppen (Tanker) Entfernungsmesser 0.9-meter Raumbild or Em 0,9m R rangefinder, as used by Panzer Tank Commanders during WWII. These optics are a "scissor" design, so they would fit easily inside the commander hatch of the tank, and then could be unfolded to their full width once above the cupola. These look to have seen long service, and we can see that they were originally painted with dunkelgelb tan, as used in the North African and Italian Campaigns. They were then repainted with the standard blue gray panzergrau for use in Europe. Definitely some great history to these!

This wonderful German WWII Tanker Rangefinder came to us from the American Armoured Foundation, Inc. Tank and Ordnance Memorial Museum. The AAF Tank Museum was a living memorial dedicated to the Tank and Cavalry soldiers of the world. Before 1981 some of the artifacts that make up the AAF Tank Museum was a private collection belonging to Mr. William Gasser. Mr. Gasser felt that his collection would be beneficial in educating present and future generations to the sacrifices made and the technologies gained during war. Therefore, in 1981 the AAF Tank Museum was established as a non-profit charitable organization, and Mr. Gasser's donated his private collection to the Tank Museum. Mr. Gasser is still active as Volunteer Director and Curator of the Tank Museum and his knowledge of military history has been a great asset to the museum. Unfortunately after 20 years of operation it had to close its doors, which is when these optics were acquired.

When folded up, the rang finder measures a relatively compact 22" x 11" x 7", compared to 39 1/2" wide when opened. They still retain the original German maker information on the data plate on the central joint:

blc
X
Em 0,9m R
212986

This indicates production by the legendary Carl Zeiss of Jena, a specialist lens maker, and one of the finest makers of optics at the time. They designed many of the optics used by Germany during WWII, and continue to produce world class lenses and other optics to this day. The blue "x" indicates the type of lubricant that should be used with the optics.

Overall condition is very good, and the optics are still clear, though we do not know if the adjustments and range finding portions of the optics are still functional and/or properly calibrated. The paint is relatively well retained, with the wear allowing the tan undercoat to be seen. It looks to be complete, however many of the screw holes on the cover assemblies at the ends of the arms are empty, so they were probably lost during a past servicing. The rubber eyepieces are still supple, and show only minor deterioration from use and age.

A wonderful example and comes more than ready for further research and display!

A stereoscopic rangefinder or stereoscopic telemeter is an optical device that measures distance from the observer to a target, using the observer's capability of binocular vision. It looks similar to a coincidence rangefinder, which uses different principles and has only one eyepiece. German instruments tended to use the stereoscopic principle while British ones used coincidence.

A stereoscopic rangefinder uses two eyepieces and relies on the operator's visual cortex to merge the two images into a single picture. A reference mark is separately inserted into each eyepiece. The operator first adjusts the direction of the range finder so that the fixed mark is centered on the target, and then the prisms are rotated until the mark appears to overlap in the operator's combined view. The range to the target is proportional to the degree of rotation of the prisms.