British Military binocular 6 x 30 “Ross “ MK 1 London 1918

No: 74225

This British Royal Navy binocular with his big yellow "broad arrows", is made of brass. The binocular body cover plates also form the folding bridge at each end. The covering is brown Vulcanite and is in good condition. At the objective site there are on the right and left cover plates large broad arrow engravings.

Ross was a British company, founded in 1830. It is well known for its camera lenses and binoculars. Ross had an early close association with Carl Zeiss in Jena, Zeiss licensed some Ross patent designs particularly for EWA lenses and in turn Ross had a license for the British Empire to make some Carl Zeiss lens types. Zeiss built a factory in London, mainly to produce Binoculars, but some camera lenses appear to have been produced, the factory was taken over by Ross during WWI. Ross also made some cameras, from about 1855 to the 1910s. In 1948 or 1949, Ross was merged into Barnet Ensign (the successor of Houghton-Butcher) to form Barnet Ensign Ross Ltd., which became Ross Ensign Ltd. in 1954. The new company continued the production of the Ensign cameras and of the Ross lenses; the production of cameras was dropped in 1961 but the company continued for some time to sell Ross optical devices such as binoculars or enlarging lenses.

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