Bigfield

In the early 1980's, Bill Beacom obtained the internal Japanese industry listing of the JB/JE codes that Japanese binoculars manufacturers marked on their binoculars starting around 1959 to identify the assembling and frame/body manufacturers of those binoculars, as part of the quality control and inspection export standards of the Japanese Telescopes Inspection Institute/ Japanese Binoculars Export Promotion Association, and required because almost all markings/names on Japanese binoculars are sales or importer names, and are not directly related to the manufacturer. Bill had the documents translated from Japanese to English, and then Peter Abrahams posted them on his website "Europa", where everybody viewed the information until Peter died and the website eventually disappeared. Everybody researching vintage Japanese binoculars (including me) used that information all the time. I thought that there should be a reliable long term source to view that information thus making it easily accessible to everybody again, and contacted and obtained permission from Peter's daughter Katie to reformat and post the JB/JE code information on my not for profit binoculars research website http//www.miniaturebinoculars.com. If you open the website, and use the right hand yellow navigation,then the JB codes nav link is the next to last line, and clicking on the line takes you to the page (currently on page 92, but that will change as pages are added regularly). Mark Ohno

The research library of old binoculars catalogs now has 3,581 pages scanned of 207 pre 1980 binoculars catalogs, in 9 languages, covering 173 brands, and with more being added as they can be acquired. It is a section of the binoculars research website Miniature Binoculars at www.miniaturebinoculars.com, and like the website is not for profit; is free to view with no registration required; is 100% non commercial; and is intended to make more historical optical research available to more enthusiasts. The library has some catalogs that include telescopes. While the main website concentrates on a particular historical design segment of binoculars, the large catalog library covers all pre 1980 binoculars and the sections on historical binoculars distribution channels covers all binoculars, and the repair sections may have some general applicability.