The orginal T2 as designed by Heinrich Wild. Unfortunately a later model (green) rather than the orginal black and white models this is still a rare model. I managed to find two within a month and couldn't resist buying them both. One is now in the care of mr. Bennett in Australia as eventually one per collection is enough in my opinion if there are no significant differences. In this case the differences were very small and amounted to engraved letters on the knobs as well as a slightly different container. This one came with the leather lens cap as well as the original light bulbs. All three have a broken solder connection which is very easy to fix. Having electric illumination on a model this old is special indeed! All the small pieces are still there including filters. Compared to the later T2 it shows that it is the archetype. However next to my Keuffel and Esser transit from a later date it looks very modern indeed!

Some peculiarities that have been changed on the NT2 are the methods of lightning the instrument. In this instrument the various scales including the micrometer all have their own lighting / reflector. The vertical scale is lighted directly on the trunnion using a prism on the top as well as the bottom. Alternatively a light bulb can be fitted. The horizontal scale is lighted throug a single prism on the bottom of the instrument.  While the NT2 retains the lightning at the bottom of the instrument, the vertical scale illumination has changed to the side of the instrument. Also, the prisms have then been replaced with mirrors. Making them cheaper and probably giving more light at the same time. Furthermore, the telescope is longer than on the NT2 and the size of the vertical scale has increased on the NT2.

More information / other collections:

Virtual archive

de Hilster

Bennett