INTERVIEW: Measuring the world with Wndsn

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"How far is it?" That is - alongside "Where do we come from and where do we go" - probably one of the fundamental human questions. Also Wndsn from Berlin once asked himself this question and a cosmos of ancient knowledge, still valid today, opened up to him. Modern manufacturing technology paired with ancient knowledge. These are his Quadrant Telemeters, making distance calculation child's play. We asked him for an interview.

SPARTANAT: Many wonder what does "Wndsn" mean and what does it stand for?

Wndsn: Windson is the Son of the Wind, the Northwind, a homage to the far North and my ancestors. The author of the manuals is named Filiusventi, the Latinization of Wndsn is inspired by the Renaissance scientists' practice to translate their names into Latin.

SPARTANAT: Your products are very math-heavy. How did you come up with designing such surveying instruments and especially, how and where did you acquire the knowledge for it?

Wndsn: My interest began about 10 years ago with the idea of optimizing rough estimates and resulting research on common rules of thumb. When I first came across the Kamal (an ancient astronomical navigational device), which fascinated with its simplicity and the use of knots as scales. About six years ago, I started experimenting again with the concept and developed an instrument that adds a scale on the edge of the Kamal and a nomogram to calculate the distance of an object graphically using a cord. I started producing the device with the aim of demonstrating relationships in the physical world. Soon, others began using it for teaching in land navigation. Archers and hunters use it for distance measurement. Later, I added a simple quadrant on the back, based on even older templates, and my customers have since found new applications for it.

The original Telemeter combines various ancient techniques and adds new ones. Moreover, it is user-friendly compared to any other low-tech method. The quadrant backside, added later and based on even more ancient templates, completes the set with amazing features.

In my studies, I read everything I could find about astrolabes and the various quadrants. Interestingly, my research often was limited by the absence of books and materials referenced in bibliographies. The German and English language internet offers only a tiny fraction and by no means contains all the knowledge of this world, a large part is in libraries, often unread and only available in original languages. But I have been fortunate to find some luminaries in the field and learn from them.

SPARTANAT: How long have you been doing Wndsn?

Wndsn: Wndsn has been known since 2014. I wrote the first Telemeter manual in English in 2017, the German version in 2019, which significantly opened up the German-speaking market for me.

SPARTANAT: What was your first surveying instrument?

Wndsn: The first Telemeter was a rod-shaped rangefinder with a logarithmic MIL scale, hard to produce, only exists as a prototype, but maybe in the future it will become a serial model.

SPARTANAT: Do you receive requests for specialized products? If so, what was the hardest to implement?

Wndsn: Lately, I have been developing relatively many special Telemeters according to customer requirements, mostly with custom scales, or with markings at special values or for specific ranges. The Nato-MIL Telemeter arose from such a request.

The most difficult to implement are always further miniaturizations, more content in the smallest space, but these are of course always interesting challenges for optimized scales, which then benefit the main products, which I am constantly developing further. Documentations and instructions to explain functions to the end user are very time-consuming.

SPARTANAT: Where have your products been shipped and used?

Wndsn: The majority of my products go abroad, a large part to the USA, often to educators and illustrious user groups between Quantico and Coronado. But we also ship by field post and a lot to APOs. We have customers in over 100 countries, everywhere English and German are spoken, all documentation is available in English and now also in German.

SPARTANAT: What are your favorite features of the Telemeter?

Wndsn: Just recently, I was able to show my daughter, who is currently taking her Abitur, some concepts of differential equations with slope and tangent on my Quadrant and visualize trigonometry in a way she and her classmates had never seen before.

My favorite Telemeter at the moment is the High-Viz Version, white sandwich acrylic with black scales for accurate reading even in low light.

I use the Quadrant as a "calculator" and as a thinking tool, it is indeed a graphic computer. One can even use a Quadrant to build a sundial. Recently, I transformed a paper clip and a Quadrant into a sundial. The exciting part is that all the necessary calculations can be performed on the instrument itself. And that is my favorite feature, the versatility and the ability to always find new applications and implement them immediately. The ideal tool to engage in meaningful activities during quarantine.

We also have a monthly challenge in the Newsletter with new tasks and exercises each time, which always lead to interesting results.

WNDSN on the internet: wndsn.com