INSIDE THE BOOK

Here is the unusually detailed hierarchical table of contents and a sample of the text. There is a 14 page index too.

Please note that in this post there are minor differences in font and layout from those in the book.

CONTENTS

Table of contents                                                         

Table of Figures                                                             

Introduction                                                                   

Acknowledgements                                                        

Chapter 1

          Principles                                                             

Chapter 2

          Anatomical overview                                             

Chapter 3

         Dissection                                                            

                   Tools, materials and workplace                    

                   Removing the sub-assemblies                      

                             Brandis and their successors              

                             SNO-T and Freiberger sextants          

Chapter 4

 The Frame                                                           

                   Materials                                                     

                   Form                                                          

                   Performance                                                         

                   Scales                                                                  

                   Bearings                                                     

                             Tapered shaft and socket                   

                             Parallel shaft and bearing                    

                             Ball bearing                                       

Chapter 5

 The Micrometer                                                   

                   History                                                       

                   The rack                                                     

                   The Micrometer mechanism                         

                             Micrometer screw bearings                

                             Swing arm bearings                           

                             Release catches                                 

                                      C Plath, Tamaya, USN

                                      Mark III and clones                  

                                      Brandis and USN Mark II         

                                      Hughes and Son                      

                                      Heath and Co                          

                             Micrometer drums and verniers          

                   SNO-T and Freiberger Präzisionsmechanik  

                                      micrometer dis-assembly          

                                      re-assembly          

Chapter 6             

 Vernier scale                                                        

          Principle                                                     

          Reading                                                      

                   Tangent screw assemblies

                             Usual pattern                                     

                             Variations                                          

Chapter 7

 Mirrors and mirror mountings

                   General                                                       

                   Index mirror and mounting                          

                             Tilting foot                                        

                             Tilting mirror                                     

                             Tilting mirror, Brandis variant             

                             Spring-opposed screws                     

                             Sealed mirror                                     

                   Horizon mirror and mounting                       

                             Early sextants                                    

                             Common twentieth century

mounting                                           

                             Survey sextants                                 

                             Circular cast cells                              

                             Hughes Admiralty pattern sextants   

                             Kelvin Hughes Survey sextants        

                             Full view mirror                                 

                   Adjusting screws                                         

Chapter 8

 Shades and shade mountings                                

                   Materials                                                     

                   Form                                                          

                   Assembly                                                   

                             Tapered pin assembly                        

                             Shouldered screw assembly               

                             Parallel pin assembly                          

                    Eye piece shades                                         

                   Uncommon shades                                               

                             Polariser                                            

                             Wollaston prism                                

                             Astigmatiser                                       

                             Intra-telescopic shades                      

Chapter 9

 Telescopes                                                          

                   Optics                                                        

                             Galilean or star telescope                    

                             Keplerian or inverting telescope          

                                      Ramsden eyepiece                   

                                      Huygenian eyepiece                  

                             Prismatic monocular                          

                             Choices                                            

                   Telescope structure                                     

                             Galilean or star telescopes                  

                                      Objective lens                          

                                      Blooming of lenses         

                                      Eye lens                                   

                             Keplerian or inverting telescopes        

                                      Objective lens                          

                                      Eye lens                                   

                             Prismatic monocular                          

                             Sighting tube                                     

Chapter 10

 Telescope mountings                                           

                   Fixed pillar and ring                                     

                   Vee and flat without collimation          

                   Vee and flat with collimation                        

                   Rising pieces with fine adjustment                

Chapter 11

 Legs and handles                                                 

                 Legs                                                           

                 Plain handles                                               

                 Battery handles                                           

Chapter 12

Scale magnifiers and illuminators                           

                 Magnifiers                                                   

                 Illuminators                                                 

                          Shaded lamp                                               

                          Light guide                                        

                          Photoluminescent magnifier                

Chapter 13

The Case                                                              

                 Box structure                                              

                 Box furniture                                               

                 Securing contained parts                                       

Chapter 14

Cleaning, restoration and repair                              

                 Frame                                                                   

                          Cleaning                                            

                          Inspection for damage                                 

                          Paintwork                                          

                          Scales                                                         

                          Bearing bush                                     

                          Bent legs                                           

                 Index arm                                                   

                 Micrometer  and rack                                  

                          Micrometer worm                              

                          Rack                                                 

                 Swing arm assembly                                    

                 Tangent screw assembly                              

                 Mirrors                                                       

                          Replacement                                     

                          Resilvering                                        

                 Mirror mountings                                        

                          Frames                                              

                          Clip-securing screws                         

                          Adjusting screws                               

                 Shades and their mountings                         

                 Telescopes                                                 

                 Telescope mounts                                       

                 Handles                                                      

                 Lighting systems                                         

Chapter 15

Adjustments                                                          

                 Perpendicularity error                                  

                 Side error                                                   

                 Index error                                                  

                 Collimation of telescope                              

Chapter 16

       Calibration of sextants                                          

                 Multiple collimators                                     

                 Rotary table and autocollimator                    

                 Two autocollimaotrs and surface table          

                 Micrometer calibration                                 

Chapter 17

       Some sextant makers                                            

                 English                                                       

                 German                                                      

                 U.S.A.                                                        

                 Japanese                                                     

                 Chinese                                                      

                 French                                                        

                 Dutch                                                         

Appendices

                 1 Effects of mis-collimation on

                                             sextant error                   

                 2 Analysis of centring errors                        

                 3 Recipe for resilvering mirrors                    

Bibliography                                                                

Short glossary                                                             

Index       

Have a browse through a few pages  to get the “flavour” of the book. Don’t forget you can click on the image to enlarge it, though the quality of the photograph won’t be as good as the original in the book.

2 responses

29 07 2010
J. Marshall Reber

I like your detailed annotations and clear photos!

19 01 2014
Renato Fonseca

Fantastic in many ways: skilled in restoring a precision instrument and selflessness in sharing your work (for free). Genius.

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