Uniform binoculars approved by the district headquarters are optics of governments. A. Felsengard-Skalsky Theaters

The rarest binoculars known, according to our data, today in a single copy. Initially, we found only a trunk, but the binoculars themselves were missing. For a long time, the only information about the contents of the trunk was an excerpt from the brochure "FIELD BINOCULARS, their device, method of wearing, rules for cleaning and saving, improvements and adaptation of the Suchet rangefinder", published in Kazan in 1893: "... we have In Warsaw, the optician Felsengardt-Skalsky got binoculars with a device thanks to which the tube is not unscrewed every time to set the focus, but is pulled out instantly when pressing the pressure located under the tube. According to the District Headquarters of the Caucasian Military District, as stated in the announcement dated March 24, 1892, No. 20, the mechanism for quickly focusing binoculars is undoubtedly of great importance when surveying the terrain from a horse." According to the text of the above-mentioned document, the cost of binoculars was determined at 20 rubles (in the nickel-plated version at 32 rubles). If payment was difficult, installments for a year were allowed. That was the end of all the information about this mysterious binoculars. The main problem with further searches was that we were looking for binoculars marked with Polish optics, which seemed to look self-evident, but devices with such markings stubbornly refused to come across. In addition, the size of the binoculars, judging by the case, did not match the size of the "standard-issue" binoculars for the Russian army by K.The Russian military model adopted in 1887-1888, nor with the dimensions of subsequent samples of binoculars of Russian military models by French companies Lemaire and Kraus. Thus, the binoculars were clearly not of a standard size, which looked somewhat unusual and did not allow the most common models to be "attributed" to the case in order to at least roughly understand what the original looked like. The mystery of these binoculars was solved by an article by the same OSH teacher, Staff Captain Sergei Fedorovich von Dietmar, who wrote the above-mentioned brochure "Field binoculars...", entitled "A set of experiments performed at the Officer's Rifle School on rangefinder binoculars", which was published in 1898. Here is what was said about this subject in the article: "Colmon binoculars. In Russia, these binoculars are distributed by the Warsaw optician Felsengard-Skalsky; Molniya binoculars it has the peculiarity that, thanks to a special device, the eyepieces, after being mounted on the eyes by means of a wheel, can instantly move into the focus of the observer's vision, for which it is only necessary to press the lever at the bottom of the binoculars; the tubes are removed into their place by simply pressing the upper crossbar. " It should be added that the word "Airplane", marked on the front disk of the axis of the binoculars, translates as "lightning". The Molniya binoculars were slightly more expensive than the Votkey "standard" binoculars (17 rubles in 1888), but they were probably more convenient due to their smaller size and more prestigious for officers, which may explain a certain "advertising" campaign in relation to these binoculars by the OSH. It is difficult to say whether the presence of a device for instant focus adjustment was really useful for military affairs, but from the point of view of showing interest in binoculars, more precisely, its design due to its unusual nature, Felsengard-Skalsky made, without a doubt, a good publicity stunt to promote this binocular among the military. Nevertheless, the history of the use of these binoculars did not continue at the beginning of the twentieth century, and this binocular was no longer included in the circulars of the General Staff as recommended for use by troops. It is not known what exactly the reason for the refusal to issue a recommendation from the General Staff of the binoculars for General Staff circulars, which von Dietmar loved so much, is, however, the subject itself is an extremely interesting example of domestic military optics. The binoculars were produced in an aluminum case (as shown in the photo) and in a brass case coated with nickel. The first option was considered preferable due to its lower weight.