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#124160 - 02/29/04 12:13 PM polemoscope
wwh Carpal Tunnel Registered: 01/18/01 Posts: 13858	polemoscope. An opera or field glass with an oblique mirror arranged for seeing objects not directly before the eye. “The detective used a polemoscope to observe the suspect unobtrusively This device is usually a small monocular with a prism, so that the user appears to be looking away from the suspect, to avoid alerting suspect. They used to be advertised in pulp magazines, called "See-backoscope".
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#124161 - 03/03/04 03:58 AM Re: polemoscope
Bingley Carpal Tunnel Registered: 04/09/00 Posts: 3065 Loc: Jakarta	Presumably from Greek polemos = war as in polemics. Perhaps they were once used on battlefields. Bingley _________________________ Bingley
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#124162 - 03/28/04 08:20 AM Re: polemoscope
wwh Carpal Tunnel Registered: 01/18/01 Posts: 13858	Dear Bingley: I didn't get the point of your post until just now. In WWI, it would have been suicidal to put your head up above trench to use binoculars. So a 45degree mirror overhead allowed safe use of binoculars. From Internet: [page 185] Observation from behind cover or protected from enemy sight has always been a necessity in the military. The oldest device for this purpose is the Polemoscope, a stand with two parallel pairs of mirrors at 45 degrees to the tube. 'Hevelius maintains that he had invented this Polemoscope in 1637' (Pisko 1869, where on page 51 is a picture of such an instrument. See bibliography.)
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