This is a wonderful Lietz Preliminary Transit. Lietz received a patent on the novel design of the cool little Transit. U.S. Patent 715823. This transit was Lietz's first attempt at capturing the demand for an extremely small, light and cheap instrument that offered reasonable accuracy.

According to Lietz's 1903 Catalogue, the Lietz Preliminary transit featured a six inch telescope with a single focus and a 3.25 inch needle. The transit weighed just 2 lbs (2.1 lbs on my scale). If you are interested in this transit, please read the Lietz's 1903 Catalogue 3 page PDF. Lietz describes the transit in some detail, and I will not repeat that description here.

The optics are good, with the crosshairs and stadia wires present

The transit comes complete with its box and accompanying tools as shown in the pics below.

This transit looks like it was barely used. Note that a small set screen is missing from the side of the compass box, and there is a loose part in the compass box. See the compass box pic around 50 degrees SE for the loose part. I would probably just remove this part from the compass box if I kept the compass.

My take on this transit…this is a SUPER CUTE transit that has the look and feel of an instrument made much more recently. This transit design was a throw of the dice by Lietz to capture or create a market for a super light, small and cheap instrument. The design turned out to be an evolutionary dead-end for Lietz. But the transit offered here is a wonderful example of the patented design that Lietz created with an eye to the future.

Please see my Lietz Makers Webpage for more information about Lietz.