Hi all
Could someone throw some light on this old dumpy level ..sorry its a bad pic I took it on my phone..i found this in my uncle's shed ..it has stamped on the side of the level (cowley automatic level) i think It's from the early 70's ? I'm after a bit of info about it before ebay gets it
Cheers
J
I still have two of them! They used to be very popular with brickies setting out corners for houses and the like, and my owld feller used to prefer them for setting levels for the civils. For a man with amazing mathematical mental agility, he could never get his around the automatic levels I always preferred.
Basically, they worked by having a pair of mirrors inside, one of which floated and created an inverted image of whatever you were looking at. This was paired with a normal mirror, so what you saw in the circular viewfinder was one semi-circle the right way up, and the other semi-circle upside down.
The Cowley was set on a basic tripod and you had to rely on a pretty naff bubble level set into the top to adjust the tripod until the whole thing was allegedly 'level'.
This was then pointed at a staff with an adjustable crosspiece, which was moved up and down as necessary until it could be seen in both 'halves' of the viewfinder and they halves matched. This meant that the crosspiece was exactly (ish) on the same plane of collimation as the Cowley, and on this basis you could transfer levels to other locations.
Brickies liked them because, once set up, they could build up, say, 8 courses at a corner and then use the Cowley to quickly check that the other corners with 8 courses were at the same level, more or less, all without having to write down or memorise numbers.
In terms of value, they are possible collectors items. They were never rare, as every site had at least one Cowley, and I know we must have had half-a-dozen of them in the 60s before I mithered my dad into getting me a second-hand automatic level when I started serving me time with him. Dad continued using them right up into the 80s, when he finally accepted that my auto level was far more accurate and easier to use with detailed site drawings. He still never manged to get his head around one, though, so I had to set all the levels for him!
You might find some old semi-retired brickie or tool collector who'll give you a tenner for it, but they are of very limited practical vlaue in these days when you can get a laser level for 20 quid off Aldi.
we had 1, fiddly thing to get right
we also used a water level right up to the 90's
basically a clear piece of hosepipe with stoppers
you filled it and could transfer datums with it
until something went wrong (every time) and the water leaked out
had a quick look on ebay
you wont be retiring on it anyway
LLL
