NEW RIFLE SIGHT

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1756, 1 November 1905, Page 66

NEW RIFLE SIGHT

A NEW ZEALAND INVENTION. APERTURE FORESIGHT. Major L. O. Beal. Field Engineers. Dunedin, is at present in Wellington on business in connection with a i iflesiglit he has invented, and has patented in New Zealand, Great Britain and America. The sight is a range-finding rectangular one, the following advantages being claimed for it: When firing at any object there is no taking the eye from the object to adjust the sights for anv required distance; while aiming at the object a marksman is judging the distance at the same time, the foresight being both a sight and range-finder; the arrangement of sights keeps the weapon plumb, and no canting can occur when firing (canting the weapon causes a good deal of the inaccuracy in firing); the system of firing keeps the eye concentrated on the target, and gives an uninterrupted view all round the object; a rifle fitted’with thes§ sights can be fired accurately when the light is so bad that the foresight cannot be picked up by tne ordinary system; the back-sight never needs altering and nothing is requiied to be adjusted when firing at various distances; the sight is good for firing at a moving, object: a shot can be fired m about one-third of the time usually required; allowance can be made nr wma, both as regards the fore and back sights- if, when firing, there is any error seen, either in elevation or windage, the error can be adjusted quickly and witliout any movement; everything is done at one and the same moment, with one movement, and the eye is never taken away from the object, and the distance is estimated while the trigger is being pulled; these are the only sights that never require any touching or altering when firing at objects at vaiious distances; it is also- the only system of sights which combines sights ana range-finder at the same time. Major Beal, a civil and mining engineer by profession, was three years working on liis invention. Three years ago he applied for patent rights m JNew Zealand, Great Britain and America. The two first were granted, but the American patent has only just come to hand, Major Beal having fought the Yankees thre;e years before the patent was granted. Major Beal explained to a “Times reporter that in America there has been a tremendous number of inventions of this sort. Recently, however.- all objections were over-ruled and three _ American judges, forming a sort of High Patent Court, decided that the idea was entirely new and granted the patent rights. Major Beal did not “push” his invention

during the turmoil. Now be has got these rights the Major is sending Horn# the patent to the War Office for examination.

The rifle was taken to Trentham oa Saturday and several marksmen were allowed to try a shot. The day was very boisterous, and as was to be expected, the results obtained were not good. Those who used the rifle —the sights ar* attached to an ordinary service rifle—were not conversant with the new arrangement. But it is not for target shooting at fixed distances that the rifle fitted with those sights is intended—it is for shooting under service conditions. The front sight of an ordinary service rifle is a small fixed point, which is brought in line with a V back-sight or straight -bar. Major Beal’s fore-sight acts as a fore-sight and range-finder simultaneously. There are two fixed points, with a rather wide gap between; and a little below the level of the surface or floor of the gap there are a pair of projecting shoulders. The back-sight, which stand* up like the leaf of the ordinary service rifle sight, is graduated up to 2000 yards, the right-hand side bearing even numbers, two four, etc., and the left-hand side odd numbers. Opposite each number is a small aperture, the even number apertures being smaller than those opposite the odd- numbers. Eight hundred yards is the standard distance for judging a range. At 800 yards an ordinary-sized man will just fill the fore-sight gap, and at the same distance a man on horseback will fill the space from the shoulder to the top of the foresight. A horse without a rider will fill the gap at 600 yards. By this standard distances can be judged with a good deal of accuracy. For instances, a man at 800 yards would not quite fill the gap, he being about the space of a head fin proportion) below the top of the sight. No other sight invented, explained Major Beal—and he claims to be an authority—can be used at different distances without adjustment. He said a lot of shooting with his sights had been done in the South with satisfactory results.