Binoculars 7x50 CF60, Barr&Stroud Ltd. Glasgow and London, Waterproof, around 1969
Binoculars 7x50 produced by Barr&Stroud Ltd. Glasgow and London in about 1969, in no more than 25 examples of which only 5 of these are still known today. This model was completely sealed with gaskets and sealing materials, against the ingrain of water and dust and there are few moving parts to be effected by sand or grit.
There is a chip on the right prism that does not completely invalidate the splendid view, sharp and collimated.
History to Barr&Stroud Ltd.:
Barr&Stroud Ltd., founded in 1888 by Archibald Barr and William Stroud to develop and manufacture optical rangefinders, produced their first binoculars in 1919.
During the 1930s the company became the preferred supplier of binoculars to the Admiralty, a position it maintained until the mid-1950s.
Increased competition from the Far East during the 1960s, coupled with the failure to win any significant new military contracts, led to Barr&Stroud Ltd. ceasing binocular production in early 1972.
Serial numbers for binoculars were allocated in strict chronological sequence, irrespective of model.
The production ledgers, which record these details along with the purchaser and dispatch dates, were not included amongst the records received from the company.
University of Glasgow Archive Services Barr&Stroud Ltd Binoculars
Based on Appendix III of “We’re certainly not afraid of Zeiss” – Barr&Stroud Binoculars and The Royal Navy by William Reid, supplemented by information obtained by sampling the remaining outward invoice books, (UGD 295/3).
Towards the end of binocular production, at a time when only the 6mm of the aging CF29 came close to the ideal, and those of the Porro-I glasses on the company's lists ranged between 3.6mm and 4.7mm, the new CF60 had just such large, 7mm exit pupils.
This suggests that its targets were customers who required an improved night glass, the bulls eye being the Royal Navy's supply department. No CF60 has yet come to the author's attention, but photographs in the company archive indicate a screw-plugged vent on the top of each prism box.
This tends to verify that the CF60 was made, like so many of its predecessors, with maritime requirements in mind. The presence of the plugs also indicates that Barr&Stroud, like most other makers on the day, never really won the battle to make a waterproof binocular.
Nonetheless, pamphlet B.70 claimed that the CF60 was completely sealed against the ingrain of water and dust and there are few moving parts to be effected by sand or grit.
WE'RE CERTAINLY NOT AFRAID OF ZEISS by William Reid (pub. National Museums of Scotland).
In William Read's book about Barr&Stroud binoculars there are three pages (pages 146 to 148) devoted to this model - it really is that rare, "As few as 25 may have been completed and one senses that since it was not named in the Final Price List of January 1975 the CF60 did not stay in production for very long".
Serial Number and Date:
8138 - 1932
10300 - 1934
13206 - 1936
17979 - pre-1940
33135 - 1940/1
48339 - 1944
70119 - 1945
89971 - 1946/7
91786 - 1947
106337 - 1951
115656 - 1951
116089 - 1952
116365 - 1953
117711 - 1954
118501 - 1955
119096 - 1956
119298 - 1957
123171 - 1958
124480 - 1959
125664 - 1960
127349 - 1961
127512 - 1962
127525 - 1962
131387 - 1969
131406 - 1970
133645 - 1971