Luminous Sights for the SMLE

[Buccaneer]

I spotted this little sight on ebay and was rather intrigued by it as I had never seen one before. The "Lee Enfield" (thank you Mr Skennerton) only mentions it very briefly and does not show it attached to a rifle. After a little bit of head scratching, as there were no instuctions with it, I managed to get it sorted.
The front sight blade is replaced with the new assembly including the spring which is needed to keep the luminous post in either the up or down position, and the rearsight portion is clamped to the rearsight but I must admit it sems to be fairly flimsy affair and I don't think it would have lasted five minutes in the trenches.

Information

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[scoobsean]

What is the luminous material? There can't have been many options in the early 1900s. Is it radioactive? Radium springs to mind.

[Peter Laidler]

I wonder whether this was an issue thing. Never saw anything relating to such a beast in our tech library at Warminster. Is the radium still active?

Does anyone out there remember having luminous blades on our L1A1's for night firing in the mid to late 60's. Developed to counter the VC tactic of mass attacks at dawn and dusk. By the 70's we got the US IIW's and

[Promo]

I have one of those, also with the original packaging.

[Buccaneer]

What is the luminous material? There can't have been many options in the early 1900s. Is it radioactive? Radium springs to mind.

Quoting from "The Lee Enfield" a Radium Compound was used to make the sight luminous, the sight I have probably lost its glow many years ago, the phots I took were with a flash which probably accounts for the way they appear to shine.

[Buccaneer]

I wonder whether this was an issue thing. Never saw anything relating to such a beast in our tech library at Warminster. Is the radium still active?

Quote from "The Lee Enfield" page 163
"The night sights were quite widely used in the new trench warfare and one type officially introduced in late 1916 was designated "Sights, luminous, No.1 MkI" this comprises a fold down leaf behind the foresight with a luminious bar to replace the blade, and a cap which screwed over the backsight with a luminious bar on either side. Daylight firing required only to fold down the movable blade held in position by a spring."

[Mk VII]

I remember the back half, which lasted considerably longer and was a legitimate 'dodge' for the battalion shooting team for a finer sight picture.

[martins8589]

I had one of those sights for my SLR.

[Peter Laidler]

Those L1A1 trilux/radium sights....... going off the Enfield thread a bit......... We fitted those trilux sights to the whole battalions worth of rifles in Malaya. Dave Lee from the JW trials team in Johore told us that if we counted the rotations to remove the old foresight and replace the trilux foresight with the same amount, the elevation would remain the same. Likewise, if we just removed, say, the left hand backsight clicker screw then the slid the backsight out and then replaced the NEW dual leaf backsight assembly, the deflection would remain the same. Thus, the rifle would remain zeroed. That's the problem when you have spent your time on the bench for one day a week and in a cushy office for 6 days a week!

Alas, this was FAR from the reality! Because the backsights came NOT as a new assembly but simply two new dual leaves. So the sight had to come OFF, be stripped, be modified and THEN be reassembled. That is if some of the balls and springs hadn't gone walk-about in the meantime which the inevitably had.

After a month or so of range/zeroing days with the companies and lectures/lessons on the use of the new trilux sights there followed a week or so of night firing session. If I had to put the night shoots into several well worn phases or sayings, I'd just say '.....what a xxxxxxx palava', what a total waste of ammo - as there were really very few hits on target (no scores as such as only hits counted) and that while the quality of the sights was good, theory of the sights was mediocre - the practical use in operational conditions was crap!

Epilogue..... The irony of all this was that much later, in the late 90's when I went to the Small Arms School at Warminster (who originally developed the sight while the School was at Hythe - hence the name Hythe sight), one of my colleagues there told me that he'd arranged for the trial in Malaya via the JW school at Canungra and Johore for the (4?) RAR going to SVN. Apparently the reports came back telling how effective they were! Al I can do is scratch my head in disbelief..........

[martins8589]

I also had a dust cover mounted Trilux night sight. I couldn't agree more what a POS. I reakon I could see better without it.