1904 W Ottway Common Patent British Sighting Telescope No 7424 w Case

EDWARDIAN BRITISH SIGHTING TELESCOPE
W. Ottway & Co. - "Common Patents" - No. 7424 - Dated 1904

An uncommon survivor from the first generation of British military optics: a gun-sighting telescope by W. Ottway & Co. of Orion Works, Ealing, marked COMMON PATENTS and dated 1904, serial No. 7424 - offered with its period fitted wooden case.

THE COMMON CONNECTION
The COMMON PATENTS marking refers to Dr. Andrew Ainslie Common, FRS (1841-1903), the celebrated British astronomer and optical designer. Common patented telescopic systems specifically for the sighting of ordnance, with specialized internal optical arrangements, focusing mechanisms and physical cross-wires forming the aiming reference. A named-patent instrument from this moment in the development of British gunnery optics is not something that turns up often.

MARKINGS
W. OTTWAY & CO. / ORION WORKS, EALING
COMMON PATENTS
1904 (engraved/stamped)
No. 7424
POWER - with the figures 4, 8 and 9 arranged vertically beneath
On a separate collar: EVERED & CO. LTD. - SMETHWICK, an established British metalworking manufacturer; its exact relationship to this particular instrument has not been established.

The POWER marking is worn. The figures are reported exactly as observed rather than represented as confirmed magnification settings.

THE SIDE FITTING
A particularly interesting feature is the angled side-mounted fitting with threaded protective cap; removing the cap reveals a small glass optical window. Common's surviving patent documentation describes artificial light being directed onto a sight's cross-wires for use in low light, so this fitting is believed to relate to illumination of the original graticule - though its precise period designation has not been established.

OPTICS AND CONDITION
The telescope produces a clear image. The original internal aiming cross-wires are not presently visible; given their delicate nature and the instrument's age, they may have broken, detached or been removed at some point in its life. It has not been internally dismantled or restored, and is offered exactly as found.

THE CASE
Included is the telescope's period fitted wooden storage/transit case, its internal supports shaped specifically to cradle this instrument and evidently purpose-made for it. Believed original or period-associated. No claim is made that it has been documented as official Admiralty or War Office issue.

ATTRIBUTION - STATED PLAINLY
This Ottway/Common Patent instrument belongs squarely to the early British military gun-sighting tradition. However, no documentation has been found linking serial No. 7424 to a particular Royal Navy vessel, artillery battery, gun, shore installation or unit, and no claim is made that this individual telescope saw WWI service. It is deliberately described as an early British military gun-sighting telescope and nothing further - the evidence is presented as found, for collectors to weigh themselves.

AT A GLANCE
Maker: W. Ottway & Co.
Works: Orion Works, Ealing, England
Marking: Common Patents
Serial: 7424
Apparent date: 1904
Period: Edwardian / pre-WWI
Length: approx. 22 in. fully extended
Optics: produces a clear image
Cross-wires: not presently visible
Additional marking: Evered & Co. Ltd., Smethwick
Case: period fitted wooden case

Questions welcome, and additional photographs of any marking are available on request.