old transits

Let me check when I get home. We are still running a Lietz Set 4. It may have one of those serial numbers. Best instrument ever made.

Maybe I can help with dates for the Lietz transits. I worked for Lietz in more modern times long after actual manufacturing ceased. Modern products with the Lietz name were manufactured by Sokkisha in Japan (now Sokkia, part of Topcon).

I'm assuming that your transits actually have A. Lietz Co. San Francisco on them. If so here's rough estimate of when they were made.

Four digit serial numbers below 5000, mostly if not all in the 1000's were likely made prior to 1906. Instruments sn 5000 and higher were made after 1906.

Why? The 1906 earthquake and subsequent fires destroyed most of the A. Lietz Co. including records. Manufacturing log books starting afterwards showed serial numbers 5000 and higher.

A brief history of Lietz is Adolf Lietz, a German immigrant, started the company in 1882 in San Francisco. The 1906 earthquake had him starting over, Most equipment and all records were destroyed. Manufacturing continued until the start of WWII. During the war production was mostly ship's navigation instruments apparently as directed by the War Department. K&E and Gurley were the primary suppliers of survey instruments for the war. After the war manufacture of surveying instruments didn't get going and A. Lietz Co. became a distributor and mostly west coast dealer for other brands and drafting products. In the 1960's the company was purchased by Paxton Lumber in Kansas City and in 1969 become the sole U.S. distributor for instruments made by Sokkisha Co. Ltd of Japan. In 1984 Sokkisha purchased The Lietz Co. In the early 90's a new name, Sokkia, was selected for all Sokkisha owned companies. More recently as you likely know Sokkia Co. Ltd of Japan was purchased by Topcon and became Sokkia Topcon or Topcon Sokkia, I'm not sure what's preferred. Sokkia Corporation, formerly The Lietz Co., remains in Olathe KS today.

As an aside, Leitz is the name of the German camera company and was also used by Wild for a short time. There was never any business connection between Leitz and Lietz.

Regarding the second group of instruments I can't help you having never heard of the manufacturer even with around 40 years in the surveying product industry.

Hope this helps you.

Thanks Supply Guy

The list comes from a San Francisco Municipal report for the fiscal year 1909-1910. I was curious to see if any of those insturments could have been used for the re-surveys that were conducted after the 1906 earthquake. I found a mention in an earlier report of a J.C. Sala level(977) that was put into service 10/15/1901. I found an Ebay auction for a "1902" J.C. Sala mountain transit with the number 1087 on the compass face plate.

Thanks for your help

Thanks Supply Guy

Here's a page with a little info on J C Sala:

http://www.surveyantiques.com/salamainpage.htm

Cheers,
Henry