Flying goggles or ?

[Hauptmann]

Hi all,

I've had these forever and a day. Found them in a little antique shop long ago. And to be honest until tonight I never even saw makers marks on them.

I purchased them in the hope that perhaps they were WWI flying goggles. But later I found something interesting in a book... but first, the goggles:

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Hard to see in the scan but this is marked "France":

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This is marked "Depose"

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These two are marked "E. B. Meyrowitz" although the E. is not visible on one of them:

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[Hauptmann]

Now here's where it gets a bit interesting. The "only" photo I could ever find, and that quite by accident, of such a pair of goggles being used was in the Time Life series of books on WWII, in the volume Prelude To War on page 112:

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[Hauptmann]

A closer shot:

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[Hauptmann]

And still closer:

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I truly wish I could find a digitized copy of this photo as it might show things a bit clearer. But I'm like 99.999999999% sure this is the same type of goggles worn by Il Duce Benito Mussolini on that day in early 1930 right down to the type of straps it has... the bridge, the metal it seems made of, the vents on the bottom of each eye piece, the padding inside... looks the same to me.

Anyhow just seemed very interesting to me and thought I'd post it for the enjoyment and comments of the membership, perhaps in the hope of finding out more.

How I wish I had documentation that these were indeed the goggles worn in the photo... perhaps they are... nice to dream if nothing else.

Dan

[David Duxbury]

These are certainly flying goggles, and Meyrowitz was a well known maker of such. These were not a military pattern as such, but they were a popular goggle in the 1930s, and could also be worn by motorcyclists or drivers of open cars. I believe they were quite expensive at the time, but I am not certain of the country of origin. They were widely advertised in British flying magazines in the 1930s (and American I think) - perhaps they are German or Austrian, or some other Eurpopean country. They may in fact have been one of those manufacturers with factories in several countries.

David Duxbury

New Zealand.