Here's yet another one of the instruments that my late colleague Charles Swart collected. It's a Model NP 5026 precise level of the same type made by K&E for the U.S. Geological Survey, except I suspect this one was made for the Texas Highway Department, probably in the early 1950's.
Note the anodized aluminum sun shade carried in the lid of the level case. It rested on the level telescope barrel, offset by a couple of plexiglas brackets fit to the barrel. That detail and the tan paint that replaced the dark wrinkle finish on earlier versions of the level are what make me think it was made to order, but I'm subject to correction on that point.
I suppose I could cheat and look the serial number up.
As you can see, the exposed brass parts have oxidized a bit, but otherwise the instrument seems intact and functional. This was probably the best quality of level that the Texas Highway Department had in use in the early 1950's, possibly the high water mark in American level design.
Kent,
Sent you another email through Beerleg. I guess our email addresses aren't visible (or my age and stupidity are a bit swollen this evening).
If you didn't receive it please contact me at your leisure:
> Sent you another email through Beerleg. I guess our email addresses aren't visible (or my age and stupidity are a bit swollen this evening).
>
> If you didn't receive it please contact me at your leisure:
Okay, I've sent you an email via the cyberether.
BeerLeg email
I don't know that Wendell can do anything about it, but when ever someone sends me an email through BeerLeg it ends up in my spam folder.
BeerLeg email
When Beerleg sends a message it shows the senders email address even though it's being sent from a Beerleg server. I think this is what triggers some spam filters. The last email I got from a Beerlegger came from an address ending in "@beerleg2.cloudmin.myiacon.com". If you add beerleg2.cloudmin.myiacon.com to the white list in your junk mail filter it will likely take care of the issue.
Probably still better than some of the crap being made today.