MARCHING COMPASSES (cont'd)

- C -

CAMMENGA

PROFILE - See the company's history and a compass description on Cammenga's own website.
Standard lensatic compass of the U.S. Army since 1992.
See also BRUNSON, Stocker & Yale ('SandY'). Was also manufactured by Superior Magneto.



Stamp in lid : 97-08-39
(encoded date?)		 Model M-1950*
Technical Data
- NSN: 21-26460-02E
- Case: aluminum and brass
- Dimensions: 75 x 57 x 28mm
- Weight: 150 g
- Luminescent markings: Tritium paint
* Evolution of model M-1938
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CASELLA

(Go to Survey Compasses)
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CHINA

PROFILE - Chinese company: Shanghai Yonghong Instrument
(No further information available for the moment - Your help is needed.
Shanghai Yonghong Instrument -or its successor- is kindly invited to contact us.)

We display two versions of this compass. They are adaptions of an originally German model made by BREITHAUPT and built under license.

Type 5-1 is said to have been utilized by the Viet Cong troops (North Vietnam's Army) during the war against the U.S.
Type 6-2 is the standard compass in the Army of the People's Republic of China.

TYPE 5-1


The signs on the rose read:
- Type 5-1 (as well as an unknow sign in a circle - may be a logo)
This could mean "May First" which is an important day in the whole socialist world.



(Click on pictures for enlarged view)		 TYPE 6-2


The signs on the rose read:
- under the red star: Type 6-2
- in the clinometer sector:
. company name: Shanghai Yonghong Instrument
. a concealed sign: DEGREES

(Translation: Jen-Wen Chang)		 Technical Data
- Dimensions: 65 x 62 x 25 mm
- Weight: 125 g
- Diameter (compass): 50 mm
- Ruler (compass open): 100 mm
- Rose with double graduation: 360 degrees and 6000 mils.

Map reader on the back



(Click HERE for a picture of the leather pouch)
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CREAGH-OSBORNE

PROFILE - Captain Frank Osborne Creagh-Osborne, Royal Navy,  (born .../ died...) was Superintendent of Compasses with the British Admiralty and inventor. His various inventions were built by H. Hughes & Son Ltd, Dent & Co & Johnson Ltd, Sperry Gyroscopes Co., etc. (see also Category WRIST COMPASSES).
There exist two versions of a sturdy and heavy LENSATIC marching compass made by SPERRY GYROSCOPE Co. BROOKLYN N.Y.
They look pretty much the same. The main differences can be seen on the pictures below.


(Click on the pictures
for enlarged views)
 MARK VII MOD. D1.

Technical Data
- Foldable rifle-type sighting system
- Crown divisions 360 deg. counter-clockwise,
- Adjusrable marching course marks
- Adjustable lense
- Case: brass
- Dimensions: 83 x 60 x 32 mm
- Weight: 200 gr
- Fluid damped compass card





(Click on the pictures
for enlarged views)

MARK VII MOD.E.

Technical Data
- Foldable rifle-type sighting system
- Adjustable lense
- Case: brass
- Dimensions: 85 x 60 x 32 mm
- Weight: 230 gr
- Fluid damped compass card

PRISMATIC COMPASS patented together with HUGHES & SON (see also wrist-top compasses)




Version with azimut circle

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


(Click on the picture for enlargement) 		Technical Data
- Foldable rifle-type sighting system
- Case: brass
- Dimensions (dia. x depth, casing): 65 x 27 mm
- Weight: 250 gr (0.5 lb)
- Liquid damped compass card
Fig. published in the generic patent no. 1148/1915
(12 p., copies available)
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CRC

PROFILE - Former French company that built (among others) the compass type Modèle 1922.
See also Survey and Artillery compasses.



(Click on pictures for enlarged views)		 Technical data
- Dimensions and weight: see Modèle 1922
- Divisions : 400 grades, clockwise
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CRUCHONS & EMONS

PROFILE - The brand Cruchon & Emons appears on two different compass models which were used during WWI. We guess that this was a Swiss manufacturer but we lack evidence.
C. & E. built mirror compasses (engraved BERNE or PARIS) for the US Engineers Corps.
This pattern was also produced by PLAN Ltd (click on the link for compass description).
Another model (a prismatic Verner's pattern) was engraved LONDON.
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- D -

DELCROIX

PROFILE - Paul Guillaume DELCROIX was a French officer. He designed two compasses patented in 1892 and about 1910 (more information HERE)

He developed at least two different compass systems. The first one when he still was Capitaine was called Règle topographique - boussole rapporteur (see Survey compasses).
The second one was a small marching compass marked Comdt D+ i.e. Commandant Delcroix. It was thus developed at the turn of the century when he had become a Major. It consisted of a square casing on which a sight could be fixed. It also had a lanyard to hold the compass at a certain distance of the eye
A DELCROIX compass was still proposed in the Secrétan catalogue (no. 344, p. 51 - ca. 1920, w/o picture) - but maybe it is still another  instrument?



(Pictures Jaypee - private coll.)		 Technical Data
- Casing: aluminium
- Dimensions: ... x ... x ... mm
- Weight: ... gr
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DEMARIA-LAPIERRE

PROFILE - Former French company (more information HERE) famous at the turn of the century for its cameras.
They  produced like several other companies (see CRC, Lemaire, Secrétan, Morin) a military version of the compass type Modèle 1922.
Sources : Lucien Gratté and website c dans la boîte. See also pocket compasses.

DLM (Modèle 1922)

PROFILE - The three letters DLM stand for Demaria-Lapierre and Mollier. The company was created through the merger of Demaria-Lapierre and Mollier in 1930. DLM continued to produce the compass type Modèle 1922.



(Click on pictures for enlarged views)		 Technical data
- Dimensions and weight: see Modèle 1922
- Divisions : 6400 mils, clockwise
This item was issued to Belgian troops after WWII (the abbrev. MG for Ministère de la Guerre has disappeared). It was carried in a leather pouch attached to the waist belt..
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DOIGNON

PROFILE: former French manufacturer, mainly of nautical compasses. A factory in Malakoff (a southern district of Paris) produced this hand-held marching compass (no other information momentarily available).
Description: This instrument allowed for adaption not only of Magnetic North (arrow head with luminous paint) but also of the angular difference between the Lambert projection's North value on the French military maps (indicated by the two letters NL for Nord Lambert on either side of the zero line of the divisions) and the geographical North (NG on the central disk with the cardinal points).
The divided circle rotates by means of the base plate with notched rim. On the right hand side, a 100 mm ruler (bearing the manufacturer's name DOIGNON and the factory's address MALAKOFF) can be attached by means of a dove-tail fitting (tilted by 45 deg.).

This item was issued to the French colonial troops. Markings in the pouch flap
- Unit's stamp: 3e Battaillon / 15e R.T.A. (3rd Batt., 15th Régiment de Tirailleurs Algériens). The unit's coat-of-arms is not recognizable. For more information about this regiment and a picture of the 1st R.T.A.'s coat-of-arms, see in the French part of WIKIPEDIA the entry for the R.T.A.
- written by hand with black pencil, left of the stamp: n° 4 / 10e Cie (no. 4, 10th company).

NOTE: The provisional official users' instructions (called notice in French) call this compass type a Modèle 1922 but the instrument that was called Mle 1922 until after the Second World War is entirely different. We consider (but this still has to be substantiated) that the company DEMARIA-LAPIERRE (see above) won in this year a competition against DOIGNON for the procurement of compasses for the French armed forces. DEMARIA-LAPIERRE's dial design is not only identical with the one of the MORIN pocket compass utilized until then but its protection lid with 60 mm divisions makes the leather pouch and the removable ruler superfluous. Moreover, this compass design was much more heavy and complicated, and thus expensive.






Fitting and ruler

(Click on pictures for enlarged views)
Underside: the two pins for adaption of the magnetic declination and the angular difference between geographic North and the maps' projection North.


 Provisional user's instructions
Modèle 1922
Issue Febr. 14, 1923





(Copies: see SHOP)		 Technical Data
- Material: brass, black paint
- Divisions: 400 grades, clockwise
- Diameter (rose): 60 mm
- Depth: 20 mm
- Weight: 225 g
- Mirror: glass glued in the lid

NOTE: The instructions describe a compass version with a black paint lubber line on the crystal (a portion of which is in luminous paint) and with automatic locking of the needle in upward position through the closing of the lid.
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DOLLOND

PROFILE - British instruments manufacturer and retailer, now D&A, Dollond & Aitchison (more information HERE).
This item was patented and made by F. BARKER & Son in 1916 (see catalogue below).
Compare with the U.S.-made M-1938





(Click on pictures for enlarged views)		 LENSATIC compass

Technical Data
- Diameter: 50 mm
- Depth: 27 mm
- Weight: 180 gr
- Card: ivory (orange colour due to radium paint - still very radioactive) 

Description of this item in a F. Barker catalogue dated 1926:
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DOMATIC

PROFILE - Items probably made by the West German company WILKIE for a retailer (may be for the Austrian Market - no other information momentarily available).
These compasses feature a fluid dampened needle with "winglets" and the cover top side bears a design made of  NATO stars which are the are typical logo WILKIE's products. See also DUROPLAST.


(Click on the pictures for  enlarged views)
 Technical Data
- Dimensions:
. Black case: 65 x 62 x 18mm
. Transparent plate: 11 x 65 x 20 mm
- Needle: fluid damping
- Markings: DOMATIC,
- Users instructions in 4 languages:
 English, German, French & Dutch).
- Divisions: 360 deg. and 6400 mils.
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DUROPLAST

PROFILE - Probably made by WILKIE (no other information momentarily available).




(Click on the picture for an enlarged view)		  
This compass features a foldable holding lever like the older Stockert models ('Tourist', etc.) but the fluid capsule with "winglets" and the box' design with NATO-stars are typical signs of WILKIE's products. This item could be the result of a cooperation especially made for a company producing the new synthetic material called DUROPLAST, successor of the Bakelite.
See also DOMATIC.		 Technical Data
- Dimensions: 67 x 56 x 18mm
- Weight: 85 gr
- Needle: fluid damping
- No markings: the name DUROPLAST only appears in the users instructions.
- Divisions: 360 deg. and 6400 mils. The dial was also available with black figures on white ground.
- Mirror and protective cover made of a single one sheet of metal.

Users' Instructions available in German, English and French
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- E -

ESCAPE COMPASSES

The Escape Compasses are presented in a specific category (click on the link for access).

ESCHENBACH

PROFILE - German company (for more information, click HERE). The 1986 catalog (8 p., copy available) displays several very simple pocket and marching compasses as well as so-called special compasses for car, ship, hiking and scuba diving (wrist) compasses. Some are displayed here under the names WILKIE, DUROPLAST, DOMATIC. However, two instruments are sufficiently special to merit being described here.
See also Pocket, Survey and Wrist compasses.


The internal electronic device

(Click for enlarged views)  		Model "Electronic" (1987)

Technical data
- Mirror type: "unfolding downwards" (similar to the RECTA system)
- An LED (light emitting diode) indicates the marching course set (red push-button on left-hand side must be depressed).

- Dimensions: 90 x 55 x 26 mm
- Weight:135 g
- Side rulers: 70 mm and 3 in.
Military version of WILKIE's "MERIDIAN" * (NATO-Stock-No. 6605-17-047-7448). The "Radioactivity Warning" sticker signals the use of Tritium (H3) self-luminescent paint.

* Displayed in Survey compasses

(Click on pict. for a detailed view) 
 Technical Data
- Dimensions: 3 3/4 x 2 1/2 x 1 3/16" (95 x 62 x 29 mm)
- Weight: 7 3/4 oz. (223 gr)
- Divisions:
. bezel: 6400 mils, clockwise
. card: 6400 mils and 360 deg.
Precision: 5-10 mils
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FALKE

PROFILE -
The Internet Compass Museum doesn't possess any data concerning this company. Your help is needed.




(Click on the picture for an enlarged view)
Technical Data
- Dimensions: 100 x 60 x 12 mm
- Weight: 55 gr
- Pouch: leather imitation

The Museum possesses 2 such compasses with cardinal points in French and in German. Probably Switzerland, mid 20th c.

The FALKE compass as displayed in a WICHMANN catalogue in the 30's:
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F-L (French Limited)

PROFILE -
The Internet Compass Museum doesn't possess any data concerning this company. Your help is needed.
French Limited built a Verner's pattern compass called Mk VIII (see exhibit made by Ed. Koehn for a Verner's pattern Mk VII compass).



(Click on pictures for enlarged view)

Closing the lid causes automatic
locking of the compass card.		 Technical Data
- Diameter: 54 mm
- Depth: 21 mm
- Weight: 150 gr
- Pouch: leather
- Card material: aluminium
- Date: 1918
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FPM Holding - Freiberger Präzisionsmechanik

PROFILE - German company situated in Freiberg (Saxony) (for more information click HERE)
(Click on pictures for enlarged view)


Model (...?)
It was in use with the KVP (Kasernierte Volkspolizei) the police organisation before the GDR army (NVA) was created.

The company's logo features a mine's entrance with two stars over three mountain summits.		 The original model hat a bakelite case and an aluminium lid. Later products were entirely made of bakelite and the divisions (6000 mils) were clockwise.

Technical Data
- Diametre (lid): 64 mm
- Depth: 16 mm
- Ruler: 60 mm
- Divisions: 6000 mils, counterclockwise.


Model F52

This model was the compass with which the paratroopers were equipped in the former East Germany's army NVA.
Particular feature:
The marching course setting bar in the middle reproduces the design of the WW II  compasses (see BREITHAUPT above) but there is a major difference:
on  Western (NATO) compasses, this line is oriented on a  West-East axis while on Eastern compasses (Warsaw Pact), this line follows a North-South axis.		 Technical Data
- Dimensions: 70 x 58 x 23 mm
- Weight: 95 g
- Case colour: greyish-green
- Lid: plastic, black, heart shaped
LIDS COMPARED
F58 (left) - F52 (right)

Model F58		 The cardinal points and other markings on the F58 model were done with a radium paint and are now orange.


Technical Data
- as F52
- Case colour: NVA oliv green
- Lid: metallic, olive green, round


Model F65
Series with fluid needle dampening

Particular features:
the division markings are very thin. The capsule body is colourless. The luminous paint dashes on the capsules's outer back face are lackered.

Technical Data
- Dimensions: 70 x 58 x 20
- Weight: 68 g


Model F73		 Marking: DDR on the capsule bottom




 Technical Data
(Dim. & weight: s. F65)
Particular features:
The divisions markings are broad. The capsule's body is yellowish. On it is the abbreviation DDR (former GDR) and markings to take into account the magnetic deviation (W-20-0-20-E).
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 Model Universalkompass
Bézard system

Technical Data
- Dimensions: 70 x 64 x 25 mm
- Weight: 150 gr
- Divisions: 6000 mils
- Declination adaption: with coin slot under the base plate
- Built: approx. 1965
- Clinometer: locked when not in use (clutch on lid rim)
- Together with leather pouch and manual


Pouch and user's manual		 Model SPORT 3 for cross country orienteering hiking

Technical Data
- Dimensions : 125 x 60 mm
- Graduation : 360 deg
- Step counter
- Production year: 1968


Pouch and user's manual		 Model SAT for orientation of satellite antennae

Technical Data
- Dimensions : 125 x 60 mm
- Graduation : 360 deg
- Clinometer: ball
- Declination correction
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FUESS

R. FUESS was a German company (more information HERE).
FUESS produced during WWII the infantry-men's standard 'Marschkompass'.
During WWII, the company's secret code was 'cro'
See also Survey and artillery compasses.


Catalogue of R. FUESS
(Click for enlarged view)

The company's name on the lid of a Marschkompass. The 1st figure was printed twice :
- 3 and 4 are overlaid

 Technical Data
- (see Breithaupt, Busch, Kohl etc.).
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- G -

GAMMA

PROFILE - GAMMA R.T., now GAMMA Műszaki R.T. (Reszveny Tarsasag, Gamma Technical Corp.) is a Hungarian Manufacturer (created 1920, located in Budapest, produces measuring instruments). GAMMA built probably in the 1930's this Hungarian version of Bézard's small compass model (without mirror).
See also the large Hungarian models made by MOM and generally marked with the code number of the factory: 41. 

 

(Click on the pictures for enlarged views)

The East-West stripe reads GAMMA-BUDAPEST (compare with the original Bézard compasses)
Technical Data
- Dimensions: 2 x 2-25" ( 50 x 60 mm)
- Weight: 70 gr
- Case material: bakelite, black
- Divisions: 6400 mils. (counterclockwise), North = 3200
- Cardinals: in Hungarian
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GERLACH

PROFILE - Former German manufacturer of measuring and drawing instruments in Warsaw, Poland (for more information click HERE)
This company produced the compass model initially called M.K.32 and later K.M.32 after its inventor's initials, Colonel Mikołaj Kulwieć (for more information about M. Kulwieć, click HERE).
It is also known in Poland as the „Kulwieć compass“.
(cited after the Fundacja Kosciuszki's website - see LINKS)

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GKS

PROFILE - Former German Manufacturer. This item is called in the user's instructions Belco-GKS, where the abbreviation GKS most probably stands for the German word Geländekompass (field compass). The manufacturer itself was the company NEUFA GmbH located in Ansbach (Middle-Franconia).

 

Pict. at right: bearing 200 mils. West, corresponding to the magnetic North at that time (50's)
(Click on the pictures for enlarged views)		 Technical Data
- Dimensions: 84 x 65 x 25 mm
- Weight: 90 g
- Divisions: 6400 mils. (counterclockwise) and figures 1-12
- The magnetic needle represented on the compass card already points to the magnetic North (MN)
- Front lens for direct reading of the bearing angle
- In the lid: clinometer (long arrow) and adjustable marching course marker (short arrow, scale 6400 mils), both made of plastic. Another model features metallic pointers.


The original box		 User's instructions - old original version in German and modern version in English with colour photos available (Click on the pictures for enlarged views)
 
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GLAUSER

PROFILE - J. M. GLAUSER & Sons was a British manufacturer (more information HERE).
The compasses produced (see pic. of catalogue at right) were pocket hunter and wrist versions of the Mk VI, a variation of the Mk III marching compass during WWII and a Mk IX (see below).
The Mk.4 compass was designed in the 1950s in answer to a request for a liquid prismatic compass featuring the ability to trap any bubbles inside a double casing pending topping up of liquid, and to easily replace the pivot (full description available on demand). It was a specialist design, of some interest, rather than a mass produced article.
In 1951, the company received a substantial order for compasses (through J. H. Steward Ltd. of the Strand, London) from the Mount Everest Reconnaissance Expedition, led by Eric Shipton - a final accolade to a skilled and high-class manufacturer, whose founder had personally designed the Light Mountain Theodolite for E.R. Watts & Son, London, which was supplied to the Mount Everest Expeditions of 1922 and 1924.



(Pictures Jaypee priv. coll.)
Below: a Mk.4 made for
J.H. Steward

 GLAUSER Mk.4 - Liquid Prismatic Compass
Patent no. 821719

Technical Data
- Dim.: 5 1/2 x 4 x 1 1/2 "
- Weight: 11 oz
- Divisions: 360 deg. clockwise
- Production: 1950's
(Full specification available on demand)

Rear side of a Mk IX compass (see Barker):

Note the "B" letter in the serial no.
(Picture scientificcollectables.com)
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GURLEY

PROFILE - U.S. manufacturer (for more information click HERE).



(Click on the picture for an enlarged view)

Later French version featuring a scale for measuring speeds; range: 10 hrs/600 km (arrow at right: 1H = average speed)
(Click for an enlarged view - Picture Laurens) 		Lensatic compass model M-1938

Technical data
- Dimensions: 72 x 55 x 20 mm
- Weight: 80 gr
- Divisions: 360 deg. and 6400 MILS
- Evolution of the basic design (compare with the Superior Magneto item)

This instrument featured a braking push-button on the left hand side
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- H -

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- I -

I.O.R. - Intreprinderea Optica Romana

PROFILE - Romanian manufacturer of optics. Built also this Bézard-type compass. For more information click HERE.

Model B1-69



  

(Click on pictures for enlarged views)

IOR's logo

Technical data
- Dimensions: 65 x 65 x 17 mm
- Weight: 145 gr
- Mirror: metallic, square with rounded angles
- Marching direction arrow on lid not painted.
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- J -

JEZNACKI

PROFILE - Former Polish company (Warsaw).
For more information click HERE
This manufacturer produced the compass model called K.M. 32 after its inventor's initials, Colonel Mikołaj Kulwieć, born March 24, 1890.
It is also known in Poland as the „Kulwieć compass“.
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CONTINUED