The most intricate of these French sights was the Schneider quadrant sight. It was used with the French 155-millimeter gun, the 155-millimeter howitzer, and the 240-millimeter howitzer. The structure of this sight was highly complicated, and extreme accuracy was required at every stage of production. These sights were put into production by the Emerson Engineering Co. of Philadelphia, the Raymond Engineering Co. of New York, and by Slocum, Avram & Slocum of New York.
The design of this sight was received from France early in 1918, yet it was the 1st of November—10 days before the armistice was signed—when the first Schneider sight was delivered to the Army; but at all times the progress made was as rapid as could be expected. A total of 7,000 Schneider quadrant sights was ordered, which meant a year's work for 1,000 men. Of this order 3,500 sights were to be manufactured by the Schneider Co. in France and the rest by the three firms in this country. On November 11 the American factories had delivered 74 sights and since that time over 560 have been completed.
The amount of labor involved in the case of Schneider quadrant sights is shown by the fact that while the raw material for it cost about $25, the finished sight is worth about $600. In order to expedite production the Government extended financial assistance to some of the factories to aid in the procurement and installation of additional equipment. On November 11 the number of these sights completed was short of requirements for installation on completed carriages by about 400, but the rate of progress which had been attained in production would have overtaken the output of gun carriages by January 1, 1919.
Another difficult task was the construction of telescopic sights for the French 37-millimeter guns, the "Infantry cannon" which we adopted for reproduction in this country. Here again we encountered the same difficulty of adapting French plans to our methods. The original contract was placed with a firm which had had no experience with optical instruments of precision, but no other company was available for the work. When by May, 1918, this concern had produced only a few sights the contract was taken from it and placed with a subcontractor, the Central Scientific Co., of Chicago, who had been building mechanical parts for the sights. In this plant the complete force had to be educated in the art before any production could begin. When the armistice was signed the gun factories had produced 884 of the 37-millimeter guns, but only 142 telescopic sights had been completed. The rate of production of these sights by the Central Scientific Co. was such, however, that the shortage would have ceased to exist shortly after January 1, 1919.
The French design for the telescopic sight for the 37-millimeter gun used on the tanks was also adopted by the Army. Here again difficulty was experienced in manufacture, but excellent progress was made especially by one firm (Burke & James of Chicago, Ill.), and the output in adequate quantities was assured for 1919. The French collimator sight for the 75-millimeter gun presented difficulties to the manufacturer, especially in the optical parts. These were, however, overcome by the Globe Optical Co., who furnished the optics to the Electric Auto-Lite Corporation and to the Standard Thermometer Co. of Boston, with the result that at the time of the signing of the armistice the production of these sights was progressing well.
Periscopes from 20 inches to nearly 20 feet in length were produced in quantity. These periscopes enabled the men in the front-line trenches to look over the top with comparative safety. The long periscopes were used in deep-shelter trenches and bomb proofs. The production of the short-base periscopes and also of the battery commanders' periscopes by the Wollensak Optical Co., Rochester, N. Y., and of the 3-meter and 6-meter periscope by the Andrew J. Lloyd Co. of Boston, Mass., was progressing at such a rate that the needs of the Army for 1919 would be met on time.
At the outbreak of the war the policy followed by the Ordnance Department was to place orders for standard fire-control apparatus, such as range finders of different base lengths, battery commander telescopes, aiming circles, panoramic sights, musket sights, and prismatic compasses with firms of established reputation and experience. The result was that when requests from the Army in France came for instruments of new design, new sources of manufacture had to be sought out and these organizations educated in the methods of precision optics. Such a procedure necessarily caused delay, but it was the only course of action left. Wherever possible part of the total contract was awarded to an experienced manufacturer, so that some production was assured.
PANORAMIC SIGHT.
