Lot 7
A Seekreiselsextant U Boat Bubble Sextant 17x13.5x6.5ins(43x34x16cm)
8 October 2014, 14:00 BST
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £625 inc. premium
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A Seekreiselsextant U Boat Bubble Sextant
by Plath, Hamburg, c.1943. Model SKS-2D, bearing the instrument number 2035. Alloy body, with Bakelite wheel and grip and an air-driven gyroscope. Reading from 0-80 degrees in 30 minute intervals on the main wheel and with a vernier to 1 minute of arc. In a fitted wooden carrying case, with spare light bulbs, batteries, four filters, strap and carrying handle. Stamped "JB" and "Deutches Seewarte". Instructions (in German) pasted inside the lid.
17x13.5x6.5ins(43x34x16cm)
17x13.5x6.5ins(43x34x16cm)
Footnotes
An interesting example of an early Marine bubble sextant.
The principle of the Bubble artificial horizon for Air Navigators was expounded by Portuguese Admiral Coutinho in 1919, and the first example produced by the Royal Aircraft Establishment in the same year. Bubble sextants were in common use for aircraft by the start of WW2 and in 1939 the German instrument maker Plath designed their SOLD bubble sextant for the Luftwaffe. In 1943 they developed the SKS marine version for Submarines, where the bubble horizon was stabilised by a gyroscope rotated by compressed air. This instrument could also be used conventionally as a normal sextant in appropriate conditions. Over 21,000 of both versions were built by the end of the war.
The National Maritime Museum has several examples of the Air and Marine versions in their collection.