Early Examples
In 1854 Hippolyte Marié-Davy invented the first naval periscope, consisting of a vertical tube with two small mirrors fixed at each end at 45°. Simon Lake used periscopes in his submarines in 1902. Sir Howard Grubb perfected the device in World War I. Morgan Robertson (1861–1915) claimed to have tried to patent the periscope: he described a submarine using a periscope in his fictional works.
Periscopes, in some cases fixed to rifles, served in World War I to enable soldiers to see over the tops of trenches, thus avoiding exposure to enemy fire (especially from snipers).
Tanks use periscopes extensively: they enable drivers or tank commanders to inspect their situation without leaving the safety of the tank. An important development, the Gundlach rotary periscope, incorporated a rotating top; this allowed a tank commander to obtain a 360-degree field of view without moving his seat. This design, patented by Rudolf Gundlach in 1936, first saw use in the Polish 7-TP light tank (produced from 1935 to 1939). As a part of Polish–British pre-World War II military cooperation, the patent was sold to Vickers-Armstrong for use in British tanks, including the Crusader, Churchill, Valentine, and Cromwell models. The technology was also transferred to the American Army for use in its tanks, including the Sherman. The USSR later copied the design and used it extensively in its tanks (including the T-34 and T-70); Germany also made and used copies.
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