Fernglas gehörte zu Alférez José J. Cros. - Zeiss Marine-Glas mit Revolver 5x-10x, circa 1896
Mod. Marine-Glas binoculars with 5x and 10x revolver system, belonged to Alférez (Second Lieutenant) José J. Cros., Officer of the Argentine Navy.
These extraordinary binoculars were designed and produced by Carl Zeiss Jena, from 1896 to 1904, equipping them with an unusual and ingenious mechanism, equipped with 2 rotating turrets with two eyepieces placed above each of them, allowing the image to be magnified from 5x to 10x by simply making them rotate by choosing the desired magnification (hence the definition revolver: rotate-turn). This technological innovation was developed and created with the support of an equally ingenious invention, such as the prism.
Despite its small size, its weight reaches approximately 1,300 kg, mainly due to its robust structure made entirely of brass.
The history of these exceptional binoculars has distant roots. In fact, it became famous thanks to Admiral Heihachiro Togo (東郷平八郎), Japanese National Hero, who used it when, in command of the flagship Mikasa, during the Russo-Japanese battle which took place between 1904 and 1905, the Japanese fleet destroyed three quarters of the Russian Baltic naval fleet. Only in 1925, when the ship was moored in the port of the city of Yokosuka to be used as a memorial, could these extraordinary binoculars be observed among Admiral Togo's personal objects, which are indelibly linked to his image, so much so be represented on period paintings, as well as in the very famous bronze statue dedicated to him located in front of the Mikasa Ship.
Detailed Historical Information on This Specific Binoculars with serial number 257.
Thanks to the names and dates engraved on the objective plates of these binoculars, it was possible to reconstruct its history, the circumstances, the exact period in which it was purchased, but above all to know the person who purchased it.
In fact, the following inscriptions are shown on the binoculars:
"Alférez - José J. Cros." and "Berlin 18 VIII 1902".
Alférez (second lieutenant) José J. Cross, a young officer of the Argentine Navy, was among the staff on board the ARA frigate "Presidente Sarmiento", when on 6 April 1902, the ship set sail to carry out one of the largest cruises Atlantic which saw her land in the ports of the largest European cities, such as: San Vicente - Cadiz - Lisbon - Ferrol - Bilbao - Brest - Portsmouth - Christiania (Oslo) - Copenhagen - Stockholm - Kronstadt - St. Petersburg - Kronstadt - Riga - Sttetin - Kiel - Wilhelmshaven - Hamburg - New Castle - Amsterdam - Antwerp - London - Havre - Cherbourg - Plymouth - Dublin - Glasgow - Liverpool - Rio de Janeiro, returning to Buenos Aires on 1 February 1903 after having traveled 18,486 miles.
As shown by the writings reported in the logbook, (preserved and displayed on the Presidente Sarmiento, now a Museum Ship) dated 17 August 1902, we read that the Ship moored in the port of Stettin (Poland) and that it was granted by the Commander of the Ship D. Félix Dufourg, a 48-hour leave, to a delegation of officers (including Alférez José J. Cross), to visit (as was military tradition) the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Kaiserliche Marine in the capital German Berlin, only 150 km away. and subsequent visit to the city.
It was certainly on this occasion, that during the visit to the city, (probably led by some German officer) Alferez José J. Cross, wanted to treat himself by purchasing these binoculars from a Zeiss dealer, having his military rank, name, the place and date in memory of that visit to Berlin.
In January 1916 José J. Cross, who had already become Frigate Captain, was appointed Commander of the armored cruiser "25 De Majo", albeit for a few months. In fact, in the same year, from 22 November until 1 April 1918, he was Commander of the ARA "Presidente Sarmiento", with which he set sail in March 1917 to carry out a long cruise in the Latin Americas, docking in the ports of the cities of San Antonio - Madryn - Comodoro Rivadavia - Cabo Blanco - Sea Bear - Santa Cruz - Punta Loyola - Ushuaia - Lota - Talcahuano - Callao - Balboa - San Jose (Guatemala) - The Union (Salvador) - conoto (Nicaragua) - Punta Arenas (Coast Rica) - Panama - Colon (Panama) - Puerto Cortes (Honduras) - Veracruz (Mexico) - New Orleans (United States) - Havana (Cuba) - Cartagena (Colombia) - Guaira (Venezuela) - Port of Spain ( Trinidad) - Rio de Janeiro - Santos - Montevideo and then returned on 9 February 1918 to the port of Buenos Aires after sailing a total of 21,831 miles.
Frigate Captain José J. Cross was also Commander of the armored cruiser "25 De Mayo" from January until November 1916, and then moved to command of the "Sarmiento".
Furthermore, in 1922 José J. Cross was Commander of the Buenos Aires Arsenal.
In 1923 he became Commander of the Battleship ARA "Moreno".
The ARA ship "Presidente Sarmiento", (seventh Argentine President) was a "Mixed Frigate" with three-masted sailing armament plus bowsprit and the first new-concept Training Ship, built in England, entered service in 1898 and assigned to the Academy Naval Argentina. Between 1899 and 1939 she completed 37 annual training cruises including 6 circumnavigations of the globe. In the many calls the unit was visited by important personalities such as Kaiser Wilhelm II, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and many presidents of the republics where the ship stopped.
She was part of the Naval Review for the coronation of King Edward VII of England and the festivities for the coronation of King Alfonso XIII of Spain.
You were present in Genoa on 25 July 1892 at the launch of the armored cruiser Ara General Belgrano, Garibaldi class, built in the Orlando Shipyards of Livorno.
You were present at the opening of the Panama Canal, at the inauguration of the statue of General San Martín in Boulogne-Sur-Mer and the equestrian statue of General Belgrano in Genoa.
She participated in maneuvers and in the Naval Review of the Centenary of the Argentine Revolution in May, where she embarked Princess Elisabeth of Bourbon and the President of the Republic.
She was again a participant in the Mar del Plata naval reviews from 1902 to 1939.
On 18 April 1938 the ship sailed from Buenos Aires for the 37th and last training cruise of the Naval Academy students, returning to Buenos Aires in November of the same year.
From 1939 she stopped making foreign cruises. While continuing to be a part of the Naval School Division, she flew only short two-week training cruises with Naval Cadets. The vessel was decommissioned in 1938, but she continued to sail without sail on Argentine rivers until 1950, then as a stationary training ship until 1961, when she was permanently decommissioned after sailing a total of 1,100,000 miles around the world.
To this day she is maintained in her original 1898 guise as a floating museum ship with fixed mooring in Puerto Madero, near downtown Buenos Aires, and was declared by Government Decree No. 5589, a National Historic Landmark.
Carl Zeiss takes its name from its founder, Carl Zeiss, who on November 17, 1846 chose the small city of Jena, in Thuringia, as the location for his precision optical equipment factory. Thanks to the strict quality control that Carl Zeiss imposed on its products, going so far as to personally destroy the microscopes that did not pass the tests, the newborn Zeiss became the official supplier of the University of Jena and received the gold medal of the industrial exhibition in 1861 of Thuringia as the best research instrument produced in Germany, awarded to the microscope Stand I of 1857. In 1866 the thousandth microscope was produced and the name Zeiss became known in all European scientific circles. Thanks to the studies on the Porro prism, in 1893 Abbe patented a double prism binoculars, which accentuated the perception of depth.
The mass production of Zeiss binoculars began in 1894, already at the beginning of the twentieth century more than 30,000 were made, by the beginning of the First World War the figure had risen to 500,000 and, by the end of the Second World War, 2,260,000 were produced binoculars for the civilian and military market. Models were made starting from 4x11 mm to 12x40 mm, up to real giants such as 80 mm and 100 mm. Thanks to studies conducted on the perception of light in low light situations, it was shown that the average dilation of the pupil in an adult is about 7 mm.
For this reason, the 7x50 mm model was introduced in 1910 and remained on the market until 1917 with few changes to the materials used. In 1926, following the post-war crisis of the First World War with the Treaty of Versailles which bankrupted many important German companies, Zeiss bought the "C.P. GOERZ" and founded the Zeiss Ikon in 1926. In 1937, Zeiss had commercial contacts and factories spread over 29 countries around the world.
From 1933 Zeiss acquired interest from the Nazi regime, which balanced production towards military instruments. It successfully produced binoculars with wide-angle optics for military use, pressure resistant optical systems for U-boats, periscope binoculars for targeting tanks. Furthermore Zeiss cameras were mounted on the V2 for remote sensing operations of the English coasts.
On November 1, 1935, Zeiss, in the person of Alexander Smakula, patented a process for the treatment of optical glasses with extraordinary results in terms of light transmission. Remained a military secret until 1939, it was adopted on binoculars to reduce ghost images and internal reflections. During the Second World War, there were numerous bombings against the Zeiss factories. Jena was bombed several times by the Allies starting in 1944. Stuttgart was razed to the ground, although the Contessa-Nettel factory suffered little damage. The bombing of Dresden, in addition to devastating the city, also caused considerable damage to the Zeiss Ikon headquarters.
On April 13, 1945, American military forces entered Jena, surprising themselves as the bombings had not caused significant damage. The main planetarium was in ruins, while the factories remained operational.