One hundred years ago, on the 31st August 1917, the Glaswegian engineering and optical firm Barr and Stroud delivered periscope to the Armstrong-Whitworth yard in Wallsend. Since that date, the Silent Service has looked nowhere else for the apparatus which give its boats their eyes beneath the waves.
On Thursday, 31st of August 2017, the Govan-based firm – which since 2000 has been part of international defence giant Thales – celebrated a century of unparalleled periscope progress, with an eye firmly on supplying tomorrow’s British submarines with the latest optical technology.