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From: rbeville%tekig5.pen.tek.com@RELAY.CS.NET
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: posting... what is dial on battleship?
Message-ID: <1990Nov21.213843.16784@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 21 Nov 90 21:38:43 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
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From: rbeville%tekig5.pen.tek.com@RELAY.CS.NET

	A question for battleship buffs:

	In a photo of the _USS_ARIZONA_ being constructed in the
	shipyard, 1916, there is a huge, HUGE dial on the superstructure
	above the crow's catwalk(?).  It faces the bow.  It has the
	scale 0...9 with zero at the top, and one hand.  In another
	photo, of the cruise with FDR, after the birdgage to tripod
	conversion, it is still there.   What was the function/use of this
	dial???
	SOURCE: February, March leafs of 1991 Memorial USS Arizona calendar.

	that's -OWARI- from GLOWWORM-7-9-4
	best regards, rbeville@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM
	Bob Beville, Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR 97077

[mod.note:  This device is a range clock.  These became popular in
the British and American navies during WWI and remained so until
sometime in the 20's, I gather.  As I understand it, the range clock
simply indicated the range at which the ship's main guns were being
fired; the idea was that other ships in the battle line, which might
be unable to obtain an accurate range of their own, could read the
range from a ship which was "on."
	Also used in this manner were angle markings painted along the
bottom edge of the gun turrets; if the target was obscured to one
ship, it could read the bearing from the turret markings of another nearby
ship.  - Bill ]