Tamaya Jupiter sextant

The Tamaya Jupiter Sextant is a product of Tamaya Technics Inc, a Japanese company. The company's origins can be traced back to the 17th century when, in 1675, Tozaemon Tamaya began selling lenses and spectacles under the Tamaya Megane-ten name. In the early 20th century, it became the first company in Japan to import foreign optical surveying equipment. It operated under the name Tamaya Shōten at the time. Soon it began selling own-brand products such as optical length measuring devices and pocket compasses. After 1912, Tamaya was already producing its own theodolites and, the first domestic sextants in Japan, starting in 1922. Throughout much of the 20th century, the company was divided into two units, one producing military equipment and the other supplying the civilian market. To this day, Tamaya specialises in surveying, measuring, navigation and drafting equipment, as well as meteorological and other optical instruments. It has operated under its current name since 1983. The featured piece was donated to the collection of the National Museum in Szczecin by Józef Gawłowicz (1942- ), a Polish sea captain and maritime writer, graduate of the State Maritime School in Gdynia, acting as director of the Maritime Office in Szczecin (1993-1994, 2006-2007) and Słupsk (2007-2008). He has commanded ships under both Polish and foreign flags. He taught astronavigation at the Maritime University in Szczecin. He is also known as an author of scientific publications, largely in the field of navigation, as well as maritime novels and popular science books. Leszek Kocela