
The Online Compass
Museum displays some 50 pocket compasses from many countries (America,
Europe, China)
and several historical periods.
Unfortunately, some manufacturers could not be identified. If you
recognize any by means of its design (like the anchor at the North mark
of the first one on this page), please share your knowledge with us.
Thank you.
- A -
PROFILE: Dudley Adams was a son of George Adams Senior (1704-72), the
patriarch of the Adams
family of globe makers, who wrote numerous treatises on globes and
scientific instruments including
A
Treatise Describing and Explaining
the Construction and Use of New Celestial and Terrestrial Globes,
published in London in 1766 and is thought to have succeeded
to John Senex and James Ferguson, the pioneers of 18th
Century British globe making.
George's sons, George Adams, Jr.
(1750-95) and Dudley (1762-1830), carried forth the family business as
instrument and globe makers in London. Dudley Adams continued
the business until
1817, when bankruptcy forced him to sell the pocket globe plates to the
Lane firm.
(Source: George Glazer
Gallery)

Pictures
by diggerlee |

(Click for enlarged views) |
Technical Data
- Dimensions
. diam. case: 39 mm
. diam. compass: 49 mm
. length: 70 mm
. depth: 15 mm
- Weight: 60 grs
- Dial material: enamel
- Case material: brass, gilt
- Markings on dial: DUDLEY ADAMS LONDON |
PROFILE - This hunter type compass' manufacturer was probably a
specialist for nautical compasses. The card division (four 90 degrees
quadrants) was used until the early 20th c.
This design appears also on several ship's compasses, among others one
with the maker's initials D. C. (can stand for Dent & Co. or
DORBIGO Co.).
Whoever knows more is welcome to share his(her) knowledge with the
museum.
 |

(Click on the pictures for
enlarged views) |
Technical Data
- Diameter: 45 mm
- Depth: 17 mm
- Weight: 67 g

(Photo courtesy Boreal-Arrow) |
- B -
PROFILE - British Company
(for more information click
HERE)
NOTE:
See also the excellent book about this
compass maker's history and product range on the website
www.TRADEMARKLONDON.com.
(Click on pictures for enlarged
views)

Front page of a Barker's catalogue for the year 1926
|

(Picture
by Jaypee - priv. coll.) |
Logo: the words TRADE MARK LONDON forming a triangle around his
monogramme (FBS, inside the lyre) are the hallmark of Francis BARKER.
The
black-and-white design is called SINGER's
pattern.
Technical Data
- Diametre: 45 mm
- Depth: 15 mm
- Weight: 73 g |

Catalogue no. 3000
|

(click on the picture for an enlarged view)
This item has a floating card (like catalogue no. 3012, right) and a
system to render the markings luminous at night (...) by
burning 1/2 in. Magnesium Ribbon close to the dial in the lid
but the same design as the catalogue no. 3000 (left) which has a
rotating needle.
Technical Data
- Diameter: 35 mm
- Depth: 15 mm
- Weight: 65 g |

Catalogue no. 3012
|
 |

|

This item is similar to the one described p. 90 in the book TRADE MARK
LONDON
(see LINKS).
Technical Data
- Diameter: 43 mm
- Depth: 16 mm |
F. BARKER & Son registered many various and entirely different
dial designs. Here are a few examples:
(Pictures
by courtesy of
TRADEMARKLONDON - click on pictures for detailed views).
William Barker
(1858)
The maker's name is punched beneath the fleur-de-lys
|

"The Cyclist's" (1885
catalogue)
featuring a magnifying glass for easier reading of maps.
|

A combination of "The
Glow Needle" on a radiant dial (the original one features a black
background).
|
The same reg. no.
(355639) applied to the different versions, either with needle (pict.
at left) or with floating card (above). The letter N appears on top of
the radium square.
|
|
The maker's name is punched inside the fleur-de-lis |

"The Hunter Radiant",
a variation of the Singer's pattern
(Reg. no. 416645)
|

Three examples of
the RGS pattern (Royal
Geographical Society)
|
Early version of the
"Scouting" model with the cardinal points in red paint on the
crystal
|
|
Two different markings of the maker's name: here on two lines near
North and South (compare with picture at right)
|

.
Here, the maker's triangular TML logo is used like an
arrowhead.
|
"The Skeleton"
(1855)
The lid is marked “F. Barker & Son” and
the back is stamped with the triangular trademark with the
“S” the correct way round, indicating pre-1875.
|
"The Unicus"
(1890-1930)
An early fluid dampened pocket instrument
|

PROFILE
-
Otto BILAND was a Swiss manufacturer located in Saint-Imier (Sankt
Immer
in German). He founded his company in 1906. He received a
Gold
Medal at the Swiss National Exhibition in Berne in 1914. The company
was listed in 1920, plus an ad for precision instruments, tachometers,
timers, speedometers, watchmen's watches and counters for cars and
aeroplanes.
The basic design of this compass is described in a 1915
patent (copy can be ordered).
No other information momentarily available - see also
NARDIN.
Hunter-case compass
with metallic marching angle arrow under the
bezel's crystal.
The magnetic needle
has two points on its vertical axis and rotates between two bearings,
one of
which is on the dial and the other in a screw in the centre of the
S-shaped transverse bar.

The letters N and S
on the needle were both entirely covered with radium paint .
The crystal has a metallic frame on which the marching angle
arrow is attached.
The manufacturer's
monogramme: a-B-c (?)
|

Punched on the lid:
the British Army's arrow and an upper case 'I' for India.
The holding loop is
attached by means of a long transverse screw.
(Click
on pictures to enlarge them)
|
Technical
Data
- Diameter: 50 mm
- Height: 8 mm
- Weight: 43 g
- Date: 1915
- Figures punched in the lid: 42 and 55.
- Patent nos.: 76117 for France and 83025 for
Switzerland (these
numbers have probably been re-used because they now refer to vapour
machine systems).
Biland also filed a patent (no. 71472) for a map reader but
we don't know whether it was in production:
|
PROFILE - Former French manufacturer of instruments for
hikers (altimeters, podometers, etc.). His shop was located 89, rue
d'Hauteville - 75010 Paris.
He filed several patents. One about a new system to attach capsules in
compass casings.
He produced at least two different compass types: the pocket compass
called 40 XT of which we only have a picture in the advertisement below
and a marching compass (see this category).
This ad was printed in a 1977 or 1978 issue of the French hikers
association Club Alpin Français (C.A.F.).
(No other data momentarily available - your help is needed - a real
compass of a photo therefof is still missing).
Ad for BURNAT
hikers' instruments in the C.A.F. magazine.

 |
The maker's
logo, a map reader together with his initials:
H(enri), B(urnat) and PARIS.
 |
PROFILE - Former german company,
(for more information click
HERE)

 |

(Click on pictures for
enlarged view) |

BUSCH catalogue no. 3362
KARTENKOMPASS (Map compass), c. 1920-1930
Technical Data
- Material: nickel coated
- Transparent crystal bottom
- Bar-shaped needle
- Needle locking: remontoir-shaped excenter button
- Diameter: 40 mm
- Depth: 13 mm
- Weight: 30 g |

BUSCH catalogue no. 3346
Messing-Kompass
(Brass compass)
c. 1920-1930 |

(Click on pictures for
enlarged view)
 |
The leather pouch is made of two halves sliding
into one another.
The loop is a full ring moving freely in the stud.
Technical Data
- Diameter: 45 mm
- Depth: 11 mm
- Weight: 27 g
- Graduation: degrees on an elevated rose
- The compass card is engraved on a silver-coated ground plate |
 |

(Click on pictures for
enlarged view) |
BUSCH catalogue no. 3348
"RADIA" (military compass) c. 1920-1930.
This compass is identical with the LUFFT compass no. 1745 (see below).
Since the BUSCH catalogue also offers BÉZARD compasses
manufactured by LUFFT, we have good reasons to believe that this
compass type was made by BUSCH and sold to LUFFT.
Technical Data
Compass rose, needle and marching course arrow are coated with a radium
zinc sulfide mix and thus self-luminescent
- Diameter: 45 mm
- Depth: 10 mm
- Weight: 44 g |
 |

THE MUSEUM IS STILL LOOKING FOR SUCH A COMPASS OR AT LEAST FOR GOOD
PICTURES
(Click on picture for
enlarged view) |
BUSCH catalogue no. 3350
Militär-Kompass (military compass) c. 1920-1930.
Technical Data
- Diameter: 50 mm
- Depth: ... mm
- Weight: ... g |
- C -
PROFILE - Former U.S. manufacturer (701 West Washington Boulevard,
Chicago).
Scientific Instruments, Laboratory Supplies, Chemicals
(Picture Jeffrey
R. Adams)
|
(Click on the pictures for
detailed views)
|
These
three compasses were offered in a 1949 catalog of hunters' gear. The
compasses' names The
Chief and The
Commander are obvious. The one called MILVAY
needs to be explained: MILVAY was the name of a C.A. Co. subsidiary
selling biological materials.
Its logo was a frog. C.A. Co. published also a
specific MILVAY catalog.
|

PROFILE - Former French company located in the Marais district
in Paris (more information
HERE).
This company was the official supplier of the French explorer of the
polar regions Paul Emile VICTOR. A French archeologist also used in
Egypt when the Asswan dam was built, a compass made by this company to
search the ground for concealed caves / graves via magnetic anomalies.
At right: Export
version of a pocket compass built before
1914 for a German retailer (Picture by courtesy of Michel Collignon -
click on the picture for an enlarged view)
(Pictures sent by a visitor
- priv. coll.)
|
(Click on the pictures for
detailed views)
|
Technical
Data
- Dim. and weight: see MORIN,
boussole directrice
This compass in a sealed plastic pocket was part of the French aircraft
crews' First Aid Kits in the 1950's. |