Thales GEO
This is the second Thales GEO I have bought. My first one, since sold, was a bit of a basket case off ebay, that needed a lot of TLC before I got it working again, and then still it was gritty and not so smooth. The contrast couldn't be larger with this machine. Everything operates effortlessly and smoothly, and just clicks into place.
The story of the machine is interesting as well. I was contacted by email by an American ex-serviceman, who had worked on the American base in Helmstedt. Helmstedt, during the cold war, was the border crossing between East- and West-Germany, and the beginning of the heavily defended corridor with a motorway and the train tracks that led straight to West-Berlin. You may have heard of Checkpoint Charlie - well, Checkpoint Alpha and Bravo were at either end of this highway. A lot of military presence from all of the occupying powers was present, and our serviceman served for a long time with the border protection in Helmstedt. Of course, after 1989 the cloak and dagger stuff with the Russians calmed down substantially, and the Helmstedt support department was closed down in 1990. However, our main character had by then married a local girl, and continued to live in Helmstedt with her. Her great-uncle had left for the US or Canada at the end of the 1930's, and had left this Thales GEO in the care of his family in Helmstedt, with the message that they should guard it well, because he would come back for it. Seventy years later, chances that that would happen seem rather slim, and the younger generation did not show much interest in it, so they decided to sell it.
Since I had to be in Berlin anyway, I took a day off while I was there and took the train down to Helmstedt. I was given a wonderful tour of the now rather sleepy city, its former university, old buildings and churches, all of which are very beautiful, and took the machine back to Berlin and finally to Belgium. It has been quietly stored waiting for the house rebuild to finish, but now that everything is wrapped up, it came back out and it is still just as nice as I remember it when buying it nearly three years ago.
For ideas on what it can be used for, and how, see the page on geodetic calculators.
Enjoy the pictures!
... and then we have this one as well, to add to the collection of somewhat later Thales machines. It's an ebay find, and while already later, it is not yet the last model of Thales GEO, the GEO/R with backtransfer functionality, which typically has a serial number in the 150.000 range and a grey livery. Rather it is version 3 of the original GEO. You can find version 1 with serial number in the 47xxx range here. Version 2, with serial nr. in the 60xxx range, has detail differences, such as a recessed window for the counter register. This version, N° 67546, is still a bit early to wear the typical grey livery, instead being a greyish green. The main difference with the earlier versions is the arrangement of the operating levers, and the appearance of independent counter registers for the left and right machines, which is indeed a very handy feature. Now the forwards/backwards/off (now designated V - R for Vorwarts - Rückwarts instead of Mult. and Div.) levers for the counter registers are at the top corners of the machine, the left one taking the place of the direction switch for the pinwheel cylinder, and this lever that operates the gearbox for same (I) and different (II) directions is now at the top left of the setting register. Two other buttons have thoughtfully been added at the left and right of the setting plate, that can be pushed with a finger while the setting register is cleared. These buttons reset the levers at the top for the counter register directions to "off". The machine does not yet have backtransfer functionality, that would only come later.
Some pictures:
