Davis Ranger: Going the Distance

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NOTE: in the video I accidentally state that a furlong is 220 feet when it is actually 220 yards.
Introduced by the Davis Instrument Corporation in 1969, the Davis Ranger is a type of Stadimeter, an instrument which uses the known size of an object to calculate its distance. It is one of many different designs for optical rangefinders which have been developed over the last 200 years.
SOURCES:
patents.google.com/patent/US8...
patents.google.com/patent/US4...
www.skipjackmarinegallery.com...
www.britannica.com/biography/...
www.worthpoint.com/worthopedi...
www.navalgazing.net/Rangefinding
patents.google.com/patent/US3...
www.prc68.com/I/RF.shtml

Пікірлер: 125

  • @davidg4288
    @davidg42887 ай бұрын

    I like how this is totally passive. There's no laser to alert your neighbor that you are calculating artillery coordinates on his house.

  • @johnharker7194

    @johnharker7194

    2 ай бұрын

    13Fs are trained to just pick an object near the target to laze if laser detection equipment is suspected. Quick and dirty. But it works.

  • @davidg4288

    @davidg4288

    2 ай бұрын

    @@johnharker7194Picking a nearby obviously passive target makes sense, especially since a laser beam is narrower than radar. I don't know if these are in common use any more, but civilian LIDAR detectors for speed traps at least used to work, but not as well as RADAR detectors. The laser detectors must pick up weak reflections from objects and other traffic. Of course police get training too, mainly to leave the beam off until the target is nearby, you can't detect what isn't there.

  • @bradlevantis913
    @bradlevantis9138 ай бұрын

    This brings me back to my early Coast Guard days when we had one of these on the boat. Your explanation of how it works is way easier than the manual.

  • @Allan_aka_RocKITEman

    @Allan_aka_RocKITEman

    8 ай бұрын

    FWIW: For some reason I seem to recall seeing one of these _gizmos_ many years ago, although I cannot recall exactly when and where. I was in the USCG, and for about the first 1 1/2 years was stationed aboard a Cutter. I wonder if that is what I am remembering?

  • @bradlevantis913

    @bradlevantis913

    8 ай бұрын

    @@Allan_aka_RocKITEman sounds like it. We had it on a cutter. The captain said it was used when he started (which would have been in the 70’s or early 80’s.

  • @pierelenigus8598

    @pierelenigus8598

    7 ай бұрын

    Really? A fraudulent layman's explanation is better than the engineers manual? Oh wait you said coast guard, so yeah that tracks. RETARD!!

  • @frostyjim2633

    @frostyjim2633

    6 ай бұрын

    Did you keep it next to the tampon dispenser on your little coast guard boat?

  • @MootingInsanity
    @MootingInsanity8 ай бұрын

    I made a simple stadiametric telemeter out of receipt paper at work, it unduly and (especially in the case of my college-educated coworkers) disappointingly confused everybody. At least some of them had fun with it for a few minutes.

  • @BillRicker

    @BillRicker

    7 ай бұрын

    Similarly, I've found a selfie 🤳 stick with 1 yd extension tubes & 4" handle = 1 meter total. So I've attached a 10cm ruler, for direct reading mils. Not unlike a Coast Artillery "rake" (1 m handle, teeth 1cm spacing iirc?) from 100 years ago - used to measure misses' deflection.

  • @MootingInsanity

    @MootingInsanity

    7 ай бұрын

    @@BillRicker Beautiful idea

  • @skivvy3565

    @skivvy3565

    7 ай бұрын

    Ahh why am I not surprised. God bless the educational system

  • @peterhammes8321
    @peterhammes83218 ай бұрын

    11:45: Thank you so much for giving me the context that I was missing in regards to dazzle camouflage. I never put two and two together that it was to confuse German U boats, or how it worked.

  • @MrWilberbeast1
    @MrWilberbeast18 ай бұрын

    Underrated channel. Cheers for the great content.

  • @qno-oj3py
    @qno-oj3py2 ай бұрын

    My dad had a camera in the 60's that had a focus system with a small square in the middle of the viewfinder. You had to align the ghost image with the subject in the viewfinder on top of each other. Your range finder reminded me of that. I was surprised to see in the pictures that the adjustment was side by side instead of on top of each other. Thanks for your work making this video.

  • @thisissoeasy
    @thisissoeasy8 ай бұрын

    Speedy recovery and a pleasant vacation! Thank you so much for sharing these fascinating subjects!

  • @ShikamaruXT
    @ShikamaruXTАй бұрын

    I went all the distance^^ Thanks for this video. In War Thunder, tanks and ships have these sometimes good visible rangefinders, now i know how they worked in real life!

  • @EVERSMAN42
    @EVERSMAN428 ай бұрын

    So happy tour channel is starting to get the attention it deserves.

  • @51WCDodge
    @51WCDodge8 ай бұрын

    I am from Jersey in the Channel Islands. During the Occupation, from 1940 to 1945, fortifications were built on the Island. Including installations for 3.4, and 5 meter stereoscopic rangs finders.

  • @EVERSMAN42

    @EVERSMAN42

    8 ай бұрын

    Hi fellow countryman

  • @69degreesnorth
    @69degreesnorth7 ай бұрын

    In the airforce we learned the manual way. If you know the size of something, you can hold out your thumb and close one eye then the other. Count number of repetitions and multiply by 10 and you got the distance. We called it the "Rangefinger".

  • @matthewmarting3623
    @matthewmarting36238 ай бұрын

    This channel is amazing! It’s similar to forgotten weapons but about everything. You don’t just talk about the history but the design philosophy and the science behind whatever associated discipline there is. Thank you for all your effort - I have subscribed.

  • @TheChipmunk2008
    @TheChipmunk20088 ай бұрын

    Enjoy your holiday and feel better

  • @NikeaTiber
    @NikeaTiber8 ай бұрын

    Love your channel, man. After I learned basic trigonometry the operating principals of various range finders and navigational tools like the sextant became very interesting to me and helped me in various pursuits- mostly celestial navigation and long range shooting. I learned to use a sextant before the usage of GPS was demilitarized; I still find it pretty damn incredible that having an accurate chronograph and sextant along with the mathmatical knowledge to use the data you gather with them can let you position yourself on the planet with an accuracy of ~600 meters. Which segue's to my question: I know that they can be quite difficult to aquire, but do you plan on making a video on the Curta mechanical calculator? I believe that such a video would help give your channel the exposure that it richly deserves.

  • @hedgehog3180

    @hedgehog3180

    6 ай бұрын

    Maths is an extremely powerful tool and the basis of science for a reason, GPS is also just based on math but in this case it's based on the math of General Relativity.

  • @SurajGrewal

    @SurajGrewal

    2 ай бұрын

    I think the sr71 and appolo missions used a navigation system that was similar to looking at stars with sextant

  • @funnyyylock
    @funnyyylock8 ай бұрын

    Such an under rated channel. The production quality to sub ratio is insane!

  • @jonathanreedpike
    @jonathanreedpike7 ай бұрын

    Bell and Howell made cameras in the 60/70s with a focus matic system.You would aim the camera at the base if the subject,push a button, and a weight would swing the lens into focus at the calculated distance.

  • @ClimateScepticSceptic-ub2rg

    @ClimateScepticSceptic-ub2rg

    3 ай бұрын

    That is brilliantly simple, and pretty effective probably.

  • @jonathanreedpike

    @jonathanreedpike

    3 ай бұрын

    @@ClimateScepticSceptic-ub2rg It worked ok on level ground and with semi-wide angle lenses, handy on a simple viewfinder camera.

  • @Zbigniew_Nowak
    @Zbigniew_Nowak8 ай бұрын

    These old inventions are cool because they are all based on mechanics that the average person can understand. I saw the phenomenon of "ghost image" and its relationship with distance as a child, when I was playing with a window that has two movable panes :) Today's inventions are based on electronics and the average person has no chance of understanding how they work.

  • @BillRicker
    @BillRicker7 ай бұрын

    Great flying overview og a wide variety of related instruments! The Coast Artillery vertical-baseline Depression Position Finder (DPF) was the "Total Station" of its day since it read Range and Azimuth simultaneously.

  • @mattwilliams3456
    @mattwilliams34568 ай бұрын

    Amazing as always. I’m glad Simon gave you the credit where due and hope you see an appropriate subscriber boost.

  • @benholroyd5221

    @benholroyd5221

    8 ай бұрын

    Simon of what channel?

  • @jandl1jph766

    @jandl1jph766

    8 ай бұрын

    ​@@benholroyd5221Simon Whistler of... well, far too many channels. "Today I found out" is one of them, they're all cross linked.

  • @benholroyd5221

    @benholroyd5221

    8 ай бұрын

    @@jandl1jph766 oh him. Yes he is everywhere.

  • @mattwilliams3456

    @mattwilliams3456

    8 ай бұрын

    @@benholroyd5221 The shout out was in Today I Found Out, but Simon is the presenter for about a 10th of all KZread channels it seems. kzread.info/dash/bejne/g5umj9aHoMK9is4.htmlsi=uNdl-yEObAAcYswj

  • @DoctorMangler
    @DoctorMangler8 ай бұрын

    Thank you for such interesting and timeless videos!

  • @jamesconger8509
    @jamesconger85097 ай бұрын

    Great episode. Thanks. Oh, Davis is still around!

  • @zakgault4209
    @zakgault42098 ай бұрын

    Glad simon sent me, even your early videos are high quality. Severely underappreciated channel!

  • @retiredatforty
    @retiredatforty8 ай бұрын

    Absolutely love this channel. Subscribed!

  • @theinspector1023
    @theinspector10238 ай бұрын

    Very interesting and comprehensive. Thank you

  • @lucashinch
    @lucashinch8 ай бұрын

    Nice jacket, very well made. Great video as always. Thanks for sharing such great information

  • @Inflorescensse
    @Inflorescensse8 ай бұрын

    Ive got a PSO-1. It work pretty well I must say! I also have a paired soviet 20x spotting scope with the same system. My favorite part is the hidden giant screw in the mount meant to be driven into a handy tree.

  • @AleksandarGrozdanoski
    @AleksandarGrozdanoski8 ай бұрын

    How dare you invade the privacy of my deck chairs? 😮 😝

  • @Vincent_Sullivan
    @Vincent_Sullivan8 ай бұрын

    Hi Gilles; I am very much enjoying your work! You have an amazing collection of interesting items and topics some of which are new to me. Unfortunately, this video (on the Davis Ranger) has a clanger in it. A furlong is 220 YARDS, not 220 feet as you state at 1:10. You are correct that a furlong is 1/8 of a statute mile and if you multiply 220 by 8 you get 1,760, not 5,280. I know it is darn hard to produce the sort of videos you are making and to get every little detail correct so don't let this slip up concern you too much but if you ever update the video this would be a glitch to fix. I hope you get over the cold soon... Regards... Vince

  • @esslar1

    @esslar1

    8 ай бұрын

    I was wondering about this! 220 feet is 1/24 of a mile, not 1/8!

  • @MD-qm6gy
    @MD-qm6gy8 ай бұрын

    This is excellent Gilles!

  • @ICBMPIRATE2
    @ICBMPIRATE28 ай бұрын

    Fantastic, really well explained learnt a lot thank you

  • @Thomasnmi
    @Thomasnmi8 ай бұрын

    Please get well soon

  • @Eric-kn4yn

    @Eric-kn4yn

    8 ай бұрын

    Hes not on his death bed he didnt mention his sniffle I wouldnt notice 😂

  • @Eric-kn4yn

    @Eric-kn4yn

    8 ай бұрын

    German war ships were feared for their gunnery accuracy

  • @brianredban9393
    @brianredban93938 ай бұрын

    Great videos. Can you do a video on the escape and evasion gear that was smuggled into the pow allies ?

  • @gwick358
    @gwick3588 ай бұрын

    Wow! I understand the concept. Id never be able to build something like this though. Don't really know how this got into my suggestions. I like it.

  • @ilgiusto6885
    @ilgiusto68858 ай бұрын

    Fantastico !!! This item and the video !!!

  • @user-it7lf7kk8m
    @user-it7lf7kk8m4 ай бұрын

    Used to have one of these in a SLR camera viewfinder for focussing

  • @johnkaminsky1657
    @johnkaminsky16574 ай бұрын

    Your vids are fantastic...subscribed! You have a great way of laying it all out when it comes to the history and operation of some of the most obscure and fascinating devices. I have had a few of these Davis stadimeters. Unfortunately, the plastics didn't age well and they no longer work. One small edit at 1:09: A furlong is 220 yards, not feet.

  • @rafaeldiazsanchez
    @rafaeldiazsanchez8 ай бұрын

    Another lovely chapter of the Encyclopedia of Engineering Curios.

  • @ypaulbrown
    @ypaulbrown7 ай бұрын

    very interesting.....thanks so much...

  • @AsbestosMuffins
    @AsbestosMuffins8 ай бұрын

    and the american system was "If you're in optical distance you're too close"

  • @BIG-DIPPER-56
    @BIG-DIPPER-568 ай бұрын

    Excellent 😎👍

  • @bob_the_bomb4508
    @bob_the_bomb45087 ай бұрын

    A ‘mil’ as used by the military is defined as the angle subtended by 1m at 1 km. however that should be 6280 mils in a circle (2 x pi x 1000) whereas in fact military compasses approximate this as 6400 mils to the circle

  • @ravertaking6343
    @ravertaking63438 ай бұрын

    Just found your channel through Simon Whistler. He also recommended your book, "Calling All Stations" and I absolutely loved it. Can't wait for the 2nd book if you're still writing a series.

  • @d.t.4523
    @d.t.45238 ай бұрын

    Thank you. Keep working, good luck.

  • @902384902384
    @9023849023848 ай бұрын

    It would be neat to have a friend or relative like this.

  • @ElementoryMyDearWatson
    @ElementoryMyDearWatson8 ай бұрын

    I hope the Depression Range Finder is getting counselling.

  • @herosstratos
    @herosstratos8 ай бұрын

    7:45 The optical rangefinder of the German Leopard 1 tanks could be operated in both modes.

  • @SteveMacSticky
    @SteveMacSticky8 ай бұрын

    Very interesting thanks

  • @b.griffin317
    @b.griffin3178 ай бұрын

    Fascinating. I just bought one on eBay.

  • @MBkufel
    @MBkufel6 ай бұрын

    13:02 - that's actually a civilian reticle. The military one used the stadia at 1,75 m base.

  • @coffeecodecameras
    @coffeecodecameras8 ай бұрын

    For more information on history of early range finding in a naval context I can strongly reccomend the book Naval Firepower by Norman Friedman

  • @schautamatic
    @schautamatic8 ай бұрын

    I found a Ranging rangefinder at a Goodwill in Phoenix once. Kind of annoying to use but in a fun way. 😄😄

  • @frankfedison5203
    @frankfedison52036 ай бұрын

    Another related item (and one I think worthy of its own video) is the American ART-II riflescope from the Korean war era. A variable-magnification scope with rangefinding reticle, mated to a base that allowed the front of the scope to pivot vertically, and the rear to raise or lower based on an offset cam slaved to the magnification-adjustment knob. Fixing the target in the reticle thus eliminated the need to elevate crosshairs, while also providing range dope, (i.e. if your scope magnification is at 7X, the target is 700 yards out. (Yes, back then it was "yards")). 😂

  • @TheChipmunk2008
    @TheChipmunk20088 ай бұрын

    You need way more subscribers sir, by 2 orders of magnitude at least

  • @davejob630
    @davejob6308 ай бұрын

    give my best wishes to your voice.

  • @SurajGrewal
    @SurajGrewal2 ай бұрын

    Some phones with dual cameras do the same thing as superimposed image alignment rangefinders do

  • @ClimateScepticSceptic-ub2rg
    @ClimateScepticSceptic-ub2rg3 ай бұрын

    A furlong is 220 yards, not 220 feet. A stadion is around 210 yards, not 210 feet. That would make a Greek pous about equal to one modern foot.

  • @Foersom_
    @Foersom_8 ай бұрын

    @OurOwnDevices, "feet" please include metric unit measurements in the video.

  • @AppliedCryogenics
    @AppliedCryogenics8 ай бұрын

    Enjoyed the episode. Programmatic question.. when you put the suit jacket on, do you bother with the slacks, even if they don't show up on camera? I think I would probably just wear shorts.

  • @CanadianMacGyver

    @CanadianMacGyver

    8 ай бұрын

    I wear slacks, but not necessarily matching ones.

  • @cburrowz

    @cburrowz

    8 ай бұрын

    @@CanadianMacGyverI’m sure unmatched attire will dazzle the enemy and make targeting difficult. 😵‍💫

  • @steve1978ger
    @steve1978ger7 ай бұрын

    Uh-oh. Sir, the depression range finder is reading zero.

  • @LADY_JEMIMA_FORTESCUE
    @LADY_JEMIMA_FORTESCUE8 ай бұрын

    I'm amazed at how smart people were that long ago

  • @alwaysbearded1
    @alwaysbearded17 ай бұрын

    I have a friend that works for Davis Instruments, Weather division. I'll ask if they still carry that product. They moved from Oakland to the next city, San Leandro. I don't know if they just did not change the label (quite possible) or if yours is an old product no longer made. If they still make them I want one. We are both sailors so it would be a good navigation tool.

  • @alwaysbearded1

    @alwaysbearded1

    7 ай бұрын

    I talked to my friend. Turns out Davis was not in Oakland but started in San Leandro, moved to Hayward. He said that they don't make them anymore and thinks the stores they had were donated to the Army in one of the Gulf Wars. Too bad. He will poke around, sometimes he finds forgotten examples hiding here or there.

  • @stevebailey325
    @stevebailey3258 ай бұрын

    8:11 I spit my coffee moment😂😂

  • @jackwood8307
    @jackwood83078 ай бұрын

  • @ergosum5260
    @ergosum52602 ай бұрын

    Excessive eyestrain you say? The British have carrots!

  • @ronaldwhite1730
    @ronaldwhite17307 ай бұрын

    Thank - you . ( 2023 / Nov / 15 )

  • @centerbfd
    @centerbfd8 ай бұрын

    Very interesting. Just for the record, though, a furlong is 220 yards (or 10 chains or 40 rods). Also, approximately 200 meters. Sorry to be "that guy." Bonus to make up for it, though: a lot of streets used to be in multiples of rods & chains. So there are lots of old main streets 66' wide.

  • @boblazar7701
    @boblazar77018 ай бұрын

    He's going the distance....

  • @matthewnewton8812
    @matthewnewton88126 ай бұрын

    What I don’t understand about these surveying devices- and I wish somebody here would explain this to me- is that this technique (and any other technique that measures distance in the open air) only gives you distance from Point A to Point B “as the crow flies”. It doesn’t give you the “practical” distance that you’d have to walk over the ground to actually get from Point A to Point B. Can anybody explain how this is accounted for?

  • @GemstoneActual
    @GemstoneActual6 ай бұрын

    @01:14 - No. 1760 YARDS per mile, of which an eighth is 660 FEET, or 220 yards. Oopsie-Daisie.

  • @MBkufel
    @MBkufel6 ай бұрын

    4:04 this pic shows a periscope stadimeter

  • @patrickdavies6514
    @patrickdavies65148 ай бұрын

    1:11 Nope. A furlong is 220 Yards. That is 660 feet. 220 feet would be 1/24 of a mile.

  • @PJ818

    @PJ818

    7 ай бұрын

    Watching this, I had the same correction to make. I multiplied 220 by 8, and I only got 1,760 instead of 5,280. I recognized 1,760 as the number of yards in a mile and realized that a furlong was 660 ft, or 220 yards. It had always bugged me that it was 5,280 ft to a mile, or 1,760 yards, until I learned of a practically abandoned intermediate measure, the chain. A chain being 66 ft, or 22 yards; and 10 chains to a furlong, and 8 furlongs (or 80 chains) to a mile, it all seemed a bit less arbitrary (though definitely still quite arbitrary compared to metric (though my mind definitely grasps miles better than km). One of the interesting things about the chain is that it was mostly used by surveyors, and because of that, most residential house lots in the U.S. are 66 ft wide. Also an acre is 1 chain by 1 furlong (which hurt my brain, thinking it should be a nice square measure for area). Most residential lots are quarter acre lots, with a quarter of 660 ft of a furlong being 165 ft, which is often about the depth of a residential lot (often with street easements eating into that a bit).

  • @charlesachurch7265
    @charlesachurch72658 ай бұрын

    I have a WW1 pocket range finder that will easily fit inside a matchbox.

  • @crystalsheep1434
    @crystalsheep14347 ай бұрын

    2:33 we still use this

  • @jeffreyyoung4104
    @jeffreyyoung41048 ай бұрын

    I have a Bushnell laser range finder that looks like a binocular telescope. It can tell the range out to 1000 yards and is handy for archery or rifle use. It cost around $100 when I bought it, but now they are much smaller, but they cost $600.

  • @michaelcase8574
    @michaelcase85748 ай бұрын

    Have you ever done a WWii bomb sight?

  • @mvn514
    @mvn5148 ай бұрын

    Nice kukri in the back tho, seems to be a MK2. Am i Right?

  • @growleym504
    @growleym5044 ай бұрын

    Why not just use a sextant? It is sort of silly to mess around with all the optical Rube Goldberg stuff when a sextant is already extremely accurate means of measuring angles.

  • @kranzonguam
    @kranzonguam8 ай бұрын

    👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

  • @clydebennish2106
    @clydebennish21064 ай бұрын

    @ 1:10 how can 220 feet be 1/8 of a statute mile? maybe you meant to say 220 yards.

  • @ibrahimkocaalioglu
    @ibrahimkocaalioglu5 ай бұрын

    Your videos are very informative, but it would be better if you used metric system.

  • @benholroyd5221
    @benholroyd52218 ай бұрын

    Can you not set it to zero and align it exactly? Then you don't need to know the length at all.

  • @JinKee
    @JinKee8 ай бұрын

    We should get some small mirrors and try to 3d print one of these. It is too useful a device to let fade from history. Soldiers in Ukraine could use it to confirm the range to tanks on a steep hill, because if you laser range a modern tank the laser warning receiver onboard will automatically traverse the turret to you and fire a shell from the autoloader.

  • @jasonudall8614

    @jasonudall8614

    8 ай бұрын

    Mm so drones with laser pointers can wind up Ruski tanks

  • @ClimateScepticSceptic-ub2rg
    @ClimateScepticSceptic-ub2rg3 ай бұрын

    A furlong is 220 yards, not 220 feet.

  • @jackbarrett8100
    @jackbarrett81008 ай бұрын

    Please collab with forgotten weapons my brother

  • @ashman187
    @ashman1875 ай бұрын

    220 feet is 1/ 24th of a mile.

  • @SubTroppo
    @SubTroppo8 ай бұрын

    Gilles, please say you name more slowly. I can understand a good deal of Quebecois but until I saw it written I had no idea.

  • @alexhajnal107
    @alexhajnal1078 ай бұрын

    In future could you also include metric values?

  • @enterthekraken
    @enterthekraken8 ай бұрын

    I don't suppose you're related to the astronomer?

  • @lynndonharnell422
    @lynndonharnell4227 ай бұрын

    A furlong actually 220 yards, not feet or 660 feet.

  • @jdc1957
    @jdc19577 ай бұрын

    The chairs are NOT 4ft.

  • @dziban303
    @dziban303Ай бұрын

    stay-dee-om-eter not stad-eo-meter. like ther-mom-eter instead of ther-mo- me-ter

  • @kurtschlarb9762
    @kurtschlarb97627 ай бұрын

    I really like your channel. However, if a furlong is 220 ft., my horse can run 90 mph.

  • @jerryaubert6201
    @jerryaubert62012 ай бұрын

    I golf. Im kinda good at finding range with my mark 1 peeps. I want to find an optical rangefinder I can use on the golf course. 7 foot flags, less than 500 yards etc. My goal is to bluff my competitors with science while I slip my hand into their back pocket and take their $ with wagers. lil help pls.

  • @ben2e0omr
    @ben2e0omr7 ай бұрын

    A furlong is 220 yards not feet....

  • @carpecanem611
    @carpecanem6118 ай бұрын

    I thought rangefinders were a big no-no on a golf course. I know they are not allowed in tournament play. Any golfers out there who care to comment?

  • @BitchinSpectre
    @BitchinSpectre8 ай бұрын

    Sounds kinda like the surface is flat.

  • @bob_the_bomb4508

    @bob_the_bomb4508

    7 ай бұрын

    Did you not hear him say how they needed to correct for curvature?

  • @BitchinSpectre

    @BitchinSpectre

    7 ай бұрын

    @@bob_the_bomb4508 yeah, it's the only part of the video I watched, actually. I doneeven know what that doodad does.

  • @JoniFili
    @JoniFili8 ай бұрын

    Metric dude, please