Brass Binocular w/Handle 4"

Created at the same time as the earliest brass spyglasses, binoculars have become a common and essential tool in personal, nautical, and military life. Like the brass telescope, the binocular has been practically unchanged since the 19^th century. The first binoculars, much like telescopes in the 1600s, used quartz crystal as the lenses, producing blurry and unreliable images. To achieve greater magnification and clarity with these ancient nautical instruments, the only method known was to increase the size of each lens, creating incredibly large and unwieldy telescope and binocular designs. It wasn’t until 1854, when the Porro Prism was developed by Ignazio Porro, that handheld devices became possible and practical in everyday use. Using these double prism designs, which bent light in a Z-pattern, binoculars and the brass spyglass became increasingly smaller and more reliable, and in the 1880s the Roof Prism allowed for narrower and more compact designs. With these innovations binoculars, as well as the brass spyglass, spread throughout Europe and were utilized by sailors and pirates of the day.