That's interesting.



news:41541843@news.povray.org...

> news:web.415343ee95cfa299dd1d87f30@news.povray.org...
> > I was sent this image to identify, but I can't tell what it is.
> > Can anyone here tell what it is. The words look like they might be
> > French.
> >
>
> Ok, let's do some sleuthing here. My first guess is that it's a nautical
or
> aeronautical instrument. In fact, the "up" and "down" markings seem to
> indicate some sort of early flight instrument.
> Now, the writing around the case isn't very legible, but the last word
looks
> like "Derrien". It's a French surname, so it could very well be the
maker's
> name.
> Now let's turn to Google: Derrien + instruments turns up a bunch of
> unrelated links but this one is interesting:
> http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/history/websters/d.htm
> Bingo! Derrien was a sextant maker and was associated with Le Prieur...
and
> "Le Prieur" can also be read on the instrument just before Derrien! So it
> looks like the full name of the makers was Le Prieur-Derrien.
> Now, who was Le Prieur? He was a naval officer and a rather intersting
> fellow http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/le_prieur.html
> He's credited with several feats and inventions: first man to fly (in a
> glider) in Japan, invention of the first air-to-air combat rocket, of an
> early scuba system and of various nautical and flight instruments,
including
> an early flight drift metre called a "navigraphe". This system can be seen
> somewhere on this (famous) flight panel (Maurice Bellonte's navigator
> panel), though it's impossible to know if it's the one in your image.
> http://storage.mfa.free.fr/histpoint3uk.html
> Therefore my guess would be a Le Prieur navigraph engineered by Derrien,
and
> used from 1925 onwards on French-made planes. Of course, Le Prieur created
> other instruments (he died in 1963), so it could be something else...
>
> G.
>
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