- D -
PROFILE - Former US company located in Melrose Park, Suburb of Chicago.

Dip compass |

(Click on the picture for
enlarged view) |
Technical
Data
- Diameter: 85 mm
- Depth: 27 mm
- Weight: 260 gr
The cotter pin at the end of the chain is used as a stop for the needle
which is then caught between it and the black foam block.
 |
PROFILE (DRAFT) - Paul Guillaume DELCROIX was a French
officer (for more information click
HERE)
He developped two compass systems. The first one, when he was a
captain,
was part of an instrument patented in 1892 (no. 224.290) and called Règle
topographique - boussole rapporteur (topographical ruler -
protractor compass).
It was presented during the 22nd meeting of the 'Association
française pour le développement des sciences'
(French association for the development of sciences). This description
is to be found in the association's meeting minutes published in 1893
in the review LA NATURE (on line accessible on
the website of the Conservatoire National des Arts et
Métiers).
Delcroix published in 1894 the corresponding user's instructions. We
don't know whether this instrument was built in large series and issued
to other users than the French Army's survey units.
His other development was a smal hand-held marching compass (see this
category).

Drawing : User's instructions |
Patent
- figures (click on the picture for an enlarged view)
 |
Functional
description: see patent and users' instructions
Technical Data
- Dimensions (fully opened): ... x ... x ... mm
- Weight: ... gr
- Compass: easily removable for separate use
- Divisions: 400 grades
- Mirror: it is covered with a layer of platin, half transparent, has
millimeter lines and can be tilted
- Scales on sides:
. left: 1/80,000, 1/40,000e and 1/20,000
. right: metric scales (1/10,000 and 1/100,000 for military and foreign
maps
- Users' instructions: in short on two papers glued on the instrument's
rear face and in a comprehensive manual (27 pages, copies can be
ordered)
|
The
compass from above (sun shield flipped backwards) and mirror detail view
 |
Side
views
(Click for enlarged view)

Left hand side

Right hand side
(Pict.
Jaypee - priv. coll.) |
View from aft to
front (w/o the mirror)
Excerpt of the users' instruction:
"Echelles des écartements
des courbes pour
l'équidistance de 1/4 de millimètre de la carte
d'état-major et des cartes topographiques en
général, ceci pour les pentes usuelles de 1/2
à 10
centièmes en passant par la pente connue de 1/64."

(Click for enlarged view) |
PROFILE - For information concerning this compass manufacturer and many
others not listed here, visit the
Virtual
Survey Museum
(see LINKS).
(see also
DARLEY above)
 |

(Click on the pictures for
enlarged views) |
 |
Technical
Data
- Diameter: 97 mm
- Depth: 19 mm
- Weight: 215 gr
- Wooden case (octogonal) |
- F -
PROFILE: Former German company located in Cassel (Hesse).
Although bearing no maker's name, it is highly probable that this
item was manufactured by this maker because of the typical
clinometer's shape. Voigtländer also produced identical
instruments.
PROFILE - German company located in Freiberg, Saxony (more
information
HERE).
See also Marching Compasses and Wrist-top Compasses.

Spiegelkompass (mirror compass - 1957)
(Click on pictures for
enlarged views) |

|
Technical
Data
- Material: aluminium
Dimensions
- Diameter: 68 mm
- Length: 100 mm
- Breadth: 58 mm,
- Serial No.: 63858
- Clinometer, level gauge, mirror (in the lid). The vanes' ends are
shaped with opposite hooks so that the compass can be hung on a string
in a mine gallery to measures angles. |
Geologenkompass
(surveyor's compass, c. 1970)

(Click on pictures for
enlarged views) |


Clinometer (5 grades) and Level |
Technical
Data
- Dimensions: 93 x 75 x 22 mm
- Clinometer (lock at underside), double levels
Markings: FPM Logo and DDR

User's manual (VEB FPM, DDR) |

(Pictures
courtesy Struck) |
 |
 |
Miner's compass
(1965)
Technical Data
- Diameter: 110 mm
- Length: 240 mm
- Depth: 120 mm
- Serial No.: 54515
This compass is used suspended on a string along the axis of mines
galleries to measure their orientation.
Click on link for description. |
PROFILE - Rudolf FUESS was a German company (more information
HERE).
See also category Marching compasses.
This instrument was visibly integrated in an equipment with
mirror because the cardinals are printed inverted under the glas
window. It could be attached to this equipment by means of
a locking mechanism and a small rectangular fitting located on
the
casing's side. Paper with luminous (radium?) paint was glued onto the
needle and
on a black bar located under the needle. One half of the black bar is
made of black cardboard, the other half is the metallic transit lock
lever. On either side of the North mark (NNE and NNW) is
a rectangular black paint patch with a dot of
luminous
paint on the reverse (see pictures below). A disk of
plastic on
which the company's name is printed is attached with 2 screws to the
bottom of the casing.
We don't know by now to which equipment this instrument belonged.

(Click for enlarged view) |

|
Technical
Data
- Diameter: 2 1/2" - 63 mm
- Depth: 4/5" - 20 mm
- Weight: 150 gr
- Divisions: only main cardinals
- Date: approx. WWII

|
- G -

PROFILE - GAMBS was a French manufacturer / retailer of
optical instruments
like microscopes.
Several
generations ran the shop located in Lyon. His name appears
here on a surveyor's
lensatic compass model NT1 made by the Swiss manufacturer
WILD.
PROFILE - Company in the former Soviet Union located in Moscow.

(Click on the pictures for
enlarged views)
|
Pictures Ted Brink (www.collectingmilitarycompasses.tk)
|
Technical
Data
- Dimensions: 110 x ... x ... mm
- Weight: ... g
- Divisions: ....
|
PROFILE - The GK-2 is a mining compass (GK is the abbr. of
gornii kompas). It
was built in the 1970's by
the soviet era export conglomerate Mashpriborintorg (MPI,
Машприборинторг) located
in Moscow. The logo on this compass was
apparently a hand
grenade (for MPI's logo see WIKIPEDIA).
The modell GK-2B had in addition a mirror and a sight (see
drawing).
Model GK-2B

(Click on the pictures for
enlarged views) |

|

The hand grenade logo and the cyrillic letter 3 (latin
'z') which
stands for the Russian word zapad, West
(see MISCELLANEOUS / Cardinal points)
|
Model GK-2
Technical Data
- Dimensions: 115 x 77 x 24 mm
- Diameter: 70 mm
- Weight: 200 gr
- Graduation: 360 deg., counterclockwise
- Deviation adapter: +/- 10 deg on rear face, coin operated,
- Conversion table: alpha (0-90) / sin alpha (0-100)
- S/No.: 8866, date 1974
- Tube level: one
- Clinometer: push-button released
- Transit lock: screw released
- Case: aluminum |
PROFILE - (draft) Carl Paul GOERZ Optische Anstalt was a German company
in Berlin (see WIKIPEDIA).
This artillery compass type was built by several companies, among
them the famous camera manufacturer Carl Zeiss (Jena).

(Click on the pictures for
enlarged views) |

|

|

Technical Data
- Dimensions: 115 x 105 x 26 mm
- Diameter: 100 mm
- Weight: 600 gr
- Graduation: 6400 mils, clockwise
- Needle damping: by eddy current |
PROFILE - William and Lewis Ephraim Gurley were two brothers (more
information
HERE).
 |
 |
Technical
Data
- Dimensions (closed): 80 x 80 x 28 mm
- Weight: 120 g
- Graduation: 4 quadrants
- Material: Wooden box in a commonly used shape (see also Busch,
Wardale, Morin, S-L etc...)
|
- H -
PROFILE - Former French company located in Paris (momentarily no other
information
available).
The instrument shown below is called
Modèle 26 M.57
which means that it is a version modified in 1957 (this French
numbering system corresponds to the U.S. and British designation Mark
1, 2 etc.)
It is marked
Boussole
topographique (i.e. survey compass) but
together with the abbreviation M.G. for
Ministère de
la Guerre, which means it was issued to the armed forces
by France's War Department (and probably also Belgium's).
The exact positioning of the divisions ring's inner black line in front
of the needle was made possible by means of a prism attached
to a
swivelling fitting. The latter is stiffened on this item
compared
with the original design built
by
CRC. The compass's
line of sight is represented by another black
line drawn opposite to the knurled screw. The
magnetic deviation could be adapted to a half degree. The
corresponding scale features divisions from 20° West (occid
t) to
5° East.

|

(Click on pictures for
enlarged views) |
Technical
data
- Dimensions: 111 x 97 x 30/80 mm
(prism fitting folded / erected)
- Weight: 295 gr
- Divisions : 400 grades, clockwise
- Luminous markings on the base frame's left beam:
. fore: one arrow; aft: three dots.
- Prism for precise needle observation
-Transit lock (half circle-shaped lever) and divisions ring lock
(knurled screw head)
|
PROFILE - British design (probably late 19th c.) of a
prismatic compass.
It appears in the F. Barker's catalogues from 1909 on.
This exhibit is
signed
Major Hutchinson's Improved - A & N.C.S.L.
Further hand engraved markings on top and reverse give some indication
about the owner who probably served during the Boer War:
- Upper side: "M. Portal - B.B. Police (?) - Fort Calevanes (?) S.
Africa"
- Reverse: "Maurice PORTAL - Heath (?) Rgt"
This instrument type is also called a 4 in. (10 cm) prismatic compass
in
P. Dériaz's Manual (1917), pic. at left, 2nd row.
(see also
M1918)

|
Markings
on both sides

(click on top and bottom
picture for enlarged views)
. |
The
fleur-de-lys (North symbol, as seen through the window above the
protection glass facing the figure 180 deg (printed inverted to be read
through the prism):
 |
 |
 |
The compass as shown in the BARKER
catalogue (1909)

(click on picture for
enlarged view)
Technical Data
- Diameter: 100 mm (4")
- Depth (casing): 17 mm
- Weight: 207 gr |
- K -
PROFILE - Former Swiss company (for more
information click
HERE
- see also in the category MARCHING COMPASSES).
This instrument is the result of a cooperation with
RECTA
(famous for his matchbox compass) and KERN. It is called a
Sitometer in German
Swiss (
sitomètre
in French), i.e. an
artillery
level. Compare with
BÜCHI's
model.

(Click on the pictures for
enlarged views)
Pictures by courtesy of Jürgen Zieringer |
 |
Artillery level SITOMETER 85
Technical Data
- Dimensions: ... x ... x ... mm
- Weight: g
- ...
- ...
Manual (in German language) is available.
Ask the curator for photocopies. |
PROFILE - German company located in Uttenreuth (Bavaria). For more
information click
HERE.
(see also category MARCHING COMPASSES).

Model MERIDIAN PRO with adjustable prism and fluid-filled
thermoelastical capsule. This compass is almost identical with a former
model made by WILKIE.
This instrument was donated to the Online Compass Museum
by
K&R.
(Click on pictures for
enlarged views) |

Technical Data
- Dimensions: 99 x 63 x 30 mm
- Weight: 210 g
- Box level
- Inclination meter with percentage and gradient scale
- Conversion tables for mils/degrees, percentage/gradient and
width/distance (underside, black).
- Material of case and lid: blackened metal
- Luminescent scale |
PROFILE - US Company New York (more information
HERE)
See also category Pocket Compasses.

(Click on the picture for
an enlarged view) |

Forestry compass
|
Technical Data
- Dimensions: 83 x 75 x 18 mm
- Weight: 190 gr
- Divisions: 360 deg. counterclockwise
The declination adaption range covers plus/minus 32.5 degrees, so that
the compass can be used from the farthest point of the East coast to
the extreme western end of Alaska.
Compare with the A. LIETZ Forest Service compass.
- Inclination meter in degrees
- Material of case and lid: aluminum, black paint
|

Keuffel & Esser's version of BRUNTON's famous POCKET TRANSIT
COMPASS.
(All
pictures by A. Sancho Urbina - private collection) |

NORTH is indicated by a fleur-de-lis and not by a star.
(Click to enlarge)
User's instructions
 |
BRUNTON
TYPE POCKET TRANSIT

(Click to enlarge)
Technical Data
- Case: aluminium
- Divisions: 360 deg., counterclockwise
- Dimensions: 75 x 70 x 30 mm
- Weight: 235 gr
This item was made approximately in 1943 based on the July 1926 patent.
This model was the first Brunton Transit Pocket Compass not designed by
David Brunton himself. It was designed by Carl M. Bernegau for Keuffel
& Esser. Only the sights show some little differences: the
holes are round and smaller than on David Brunton's original patent.
Furthermore, the sight in the lid folds towards the mirror.
Copies of the user's instructions can be ordered (see SHOP). |

(Click
on the picture for a detailed view of the dial)
|

(Pictures G. de
Villèle - priv. coll.)
|
Model
name RECON
Keuffel & Esser version
of a compass type that was also made (later?) by Warren Knight and
called
CRUISER. LEUPOLD also proposed two versions of this compass (in 1957?)
with a modernized and simplified dial.
The
table inside the cover (square with 36 boxes) reminds of the new system
of numbering for the
sections (640 acres, one mile square) in a township. This system was a
creation of U.S. 3rd president Thomas Jefferson (probably when he still
was Governor of Virginia at the turn of the 18th c.) and designed for
the
westward expansion. It replaced the more traditional survey system that
placed most property boundaries along natural (stream, etc.)
topographic features.
Technical Data
- Casing: Aluminum
- Divisions: 360°, counterclockwise and 4 quadrants
- Dimensions: 90 x 100 mm
- Weight: ? g
- Manufactured: middle of 20th c.
- Correction of magnetic deviation by means of a screw accessible from
the underside of the casing (picture: see the comparable LEUPOLD
system).
|
PROFILE - Italian company

(Click on the picture for
an enlarged view) |
Model KONUSTAR
Lensatic-type
compass with adjustable lens
The case is identical with WILKIE's
MERIDIAN model. The clinometer of the MERIDIAN PRO prismatik model was
added. The glass in the lid features a sighting device with a distance
measuring system and a small lens allowing for higher precision when
taking a bearing of distant objects.
Technical Data
- Dimensions: 100 x 65 x 30 mm; Weight: 305 g
- Divisions: 360 deg., clockwise
- Level: round
- Clinometer: Pendulum system, degrees and gradient (in 3 languages:
German, Italian, Spanish)
- Casing material: Aluminium
- Made in PRC (People's Republic of China) |

(Click on the picture for
an enlarged view)
 |

 |

The capsule's luminosity is also used for the clinometer
 |
Model TRAVEL
Conventional lensatic-type
compass
Technical Data
- Dimensions: 85 x 60 x 28 mm
- Weight: 130 g
- Divisions: 360 deg./6400 mils., clockwise
- Clinometer: two 90 degrees ranges (red and black figures), locked
when not in use, visible in complete darkness
- Distance measuring dial (3 scales): 1:25.000, 1:50.000, 1:100.000
- Lid: sighting system with rangemeter
- Side sight for clinometer
- Casing material: plastic
- Made in PRC (People's Republic of China) |