POCKET COMPASSES (cont'd)

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- D -

DARTON

PROFILE - F. Darton bought their cases from Dennison of Birmingham and put their own inserts inside. They were a recognised supplier to the British War Department (now Ministry of Defence). The dial's design (Singer's patent) is identical with the Dennison compass below (click on the pict. at right for an enlarged view).

DEMARIA-LAPIERRE

PROFILE - Former French manufacturer (cameras) that produced among other companies a military version of the compass type Modèle 1922 (more information HERE).



(Click for enlarged view) 		Military pocket compass featuring the same design as the famous Modèle 1922. The MILS were no longer indicated by four but only by two digits (compare with  MORIN). This very simple basic design didn't permit to take as precise bearings as with the Modèle 1922 which was integrated in a case with an aiming device in the cover. Technical Data
- Diameter: 55 mm
- Depth: 18 mm
- Weight: 65 gr


Transit lock on the side
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DENNISON

PROFILE - Former British manufacturer in Birmingham (more information HERE).



Pictures by courtesy of
 The Compasscollector (see LINKS)

(Click on picture for an enlarged view)		 Mark V compass with SINGER's patent card design. It was superseded in the end of 1916 by the much more precise Mark VI design.
Example: see W. Terrasse.

Technical Data
- Diameter: 45 mm
- Depth: 14 mm
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DIXEY

PROFILE - C. W. DIXEY were "Opticians to the Queen" and several compasses bear their signature. However, they had them made by other manufacturers like J & G SIMMS. They traded from 335 Oxford Street, 3 New Bond Sreet and from Old Bond Street in London from 1838 and 1862.

DOLLOND

PROFILE - British instruments manufacturer and retailer, now D&A, Dollond & Aitchison (more information HERE).


Box compass (early 1800's)

Click on pictures for enlarged views		 Signature: Dollond London



Picture courtesy fatato81
 Technical Data
- Diameter: 55 mm
- Height: 15 mm
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DOXA

PROFILE - Doxa was a Swiss clock manufacturer (see example in DOXA wrist compass). The brand was used from the 1960's on by a Japanese retailer. This compass appears in a MITSUI catalogue (see Jap. Pocket compasses further below and also Japanese Wrist compasses).


 Technical Data
- Diameter: ... mm
- Depth: ... mm
- Weight: ... gr
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- E -

ENBEECO

PROFILE - Former British company. Enbeeco (link to ad) is an anagramme built from the company's name Newbold & Bulford Co. Ltd.
See also Marching compasses (F. Barker & Son).



(Click on the pictures for enlarged views)

Pictures courtesy  J.M.A. (Bakjma)
 Technical Data
Light boy scout compass
- Diameter: 50mm
- Height: 15mm
- Weight: 29gr
- Divisions: 360° clockwise
- Production: 1950's
- Material: bakelite
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ESCHENBACH

PROFILE - German Manufacturer located in Nuremberg (more information HERE). See also Marching and Wrist compasses. 


Technical Data
- Diameter: 45 mm
- Height: 14 mm
- Weight: 36 gr
- Divisions: 360° clockwise
- Production: late 1970's
Typical WILKIE-made compass. This is easily recognizable because of the needle's shape and the stabilizing winglets (not to be seen on this picture because of the yellowish discolouration of the crystal.

(Click on picture at left for enlarged view)
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- F -

FRANCE

PROFILE - unidentified manufacturers

The smallest of all spring hunter type pocket compasses to date (see Definition in Miscellaneous / Terminology)

Technical Data
- Diameter: 1 in. / 25 mm
- Depth: 11 mm
- Weight: 19 gr
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- G -

GLASS, transparent rear face compasses

PROFILE - unidentified manufacturers - See also C. Stockert & Sohn, Burnat, S-L and Thalson.
French compass with glass rear face, early 20th c.
Compare with a similar compass made by C. Stockert & Sohn

Technical Data
- Diameter: 48 mm
- Depth: 12 mm
- Weight: 35 g


Presented as a special compass for ballooning in a Vion catalogue (c. 1910)		 Compass with glass bottom. It was carried in a leather pouch with snap lock and a large round window. Early 20th c.

Technical Data
- Diameter: 45 mm
- Depth: 12 mm
- Weight: 40 gr
Serial no.: 56 (punched on the side)
 Technical data
- Diameter: 45 mm
- Thickness: 10 mm
- Weight: 14 gr
- Convex glass on both sides
- Marking: JAPAN
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GOERZ

PROFILE - The German company Carl Paul GOERZ Optische Anstalt was created in 1886 in Berlin (quoted from WIKIPEDIA).
We also display in the category Survey compasses two versions of an artillery compass (WW1 and WW2).


 This instrument existed also without lid



Picture courtesy I. Argyriadis. 
Click on the images for enlarged views
 Technical Data
- Diameter: 47mm
- Thickness: mm
- "Press-to-release" transit lock in the loop

This instrument is in fact a marching compass and very similar to a PLAN Ltd signed instrument.
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- H -

HOULLIOT

PROFILE - Former French company which became COLLIGNON-HOULLIOT after WW2 (more information HERE). Houlliot exported worlwide (Germany, Russia, USA etc. - see LUFFT, model 2745). Houlliot was one of the main manufacturer of survey compasses and parts thereof. He also invested a lot of work in small military compasses invented by French officers like the Souchier and the Desombre models.
See also Houlliot's Nautical and Survey compasses and the equinoctial compasses (with sundial), the Modèle 1922 modified 1934.

A LARGE SCOPE OF TINY C.1900 CHARM COMPASSES IST DISPLAYED IN THE SECTION CHAPITRE "OTHER COMPASSES / JEWELRY" AND IN THE MUSEUM'S SHOP.

If not otherwise specified, all pictures by courtesy of Mr Michel Collignon.

A part of Houlliot's production c. 1900:



Click on the pictures for enlarged views




The North mark is the hook-shaped part of a ship's anchor
(Click on the pictures for enlarged views)		 Technical Data
- Diameter: 45 mm
- Depth: 17 mm
- Weight: 67 g

This hunter type compass is the smallest version of a series of nautical compasses (see this category). The card division (four 90 degrees quadrants) was no longer in use when this item was manufactured (S-L catalogue 1932). 
Compass with paper dial and quandrants dial
(diam.: ... mm)

Compass with a luminous letter N painted on the magnet needle


 		Double hunter with transparent case
Click to see different configurations

 
(Pictures Ted Brink)
Compass with N & S letter shaped needle (compare with BILAND and NARDIN)

 Box compass
(called Tabatière in French)
(see top row, centre - diam. 80 mm)

Box compass
Marching compass
Arrow made of luminous paper glued under the crystal (early 20th C).

 Marching compass (compare to a model displayed in article MORIN)



Picture Jaypee for COMPASSIPEDIA

 Marching compass called boussole directrice *
Export version for Russia - look at more items in this section)
(note the needle's C-shaped north end after the Russia word for north, CEBEP, pronouce 'sever')


(* see detail description of this compass type in MORIN)
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HUGHES

PROFILE - British manufacturer. The firm was incorporated as Henry Hughes & Sons Ltd in 1903 and opened a production facility in Forest Gate (read the full story in Wikipedia "Kelvin Hughes / The Hughes connection").
Hughes also produced various marching and wrist compasses based on Creagh-Osborne's patent (see this name in these categories).


Picture courtesy D. Beving 
Click on the picture for an enlarged view
 Technical Data
- Diameter: mm
- Depth: mm
- Singer design on mother of pearl
- Cardinals in red paint on crystal (compare with Fr. Barker's catalogue pictures of the models Pathfinder and Prospecting)
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- I -

ISZARD-WARREN

PROFILE - US manufacturer, created in 1908 by two former employees of the instruments maker James W. QUEEN & Co. called Charles. F. Iszard and J. Henry Warren (surveying, engineering and scientific instruments). In 1913 it became the Warren-Knight Instrument Co. It was first located in Philadelphia 136 North 12th Street and moved to their current premises in 1963 (source: www.warrenind.com).
See also Survey & Artillery Compasses (Warren-Knight).

The company's logo on a 1908 catalogue

(Click on the pictures for enlarged views)
 Technical Data
- Diameter: 45 mm
- Depth: 15 mm
- Hunter case, bar needle with counterweight
- Production year: before 1913
Engraved inside the lid is the logo of Iszard-Warren's brand DU-NORTH compass
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Italian-made compass

PROFILE - go to C.E.V. The only visible marking is located on the push-button inside the loop.
(see also the marching compass designed by Schlacht).
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- J -

Japan


The compass at left is an antique item. For its description go to Religion/Chinese Tradition and Miscellaneous / cardinals.

After WW2, the Japanese industry exported many small compasses in the whole world and many European and U.S. manufacturers had their instrument made in Japan. We have catalogues dating back to the early 1960's from a company called TOKYO COMPASS MFG. LTD. JAPAN which seems to have been taken over by the vast MITSUI & CO., LTD. located no. 2,1-CHOME SHIBATAMURA-CHO, MINATO-KU in Tokyo, Japan. Many famous designs like Taylor's and names like DOXA can be recognized.
See also the Japanese (WWII) wrist compasses, DOXA, THALSON and compasses with GLASS bottom.



Examples of catalogue pages

Cell 1 - Tokyo Compass (green)
Seven categories: auto compasses, marine compasses, engineer, camping equipment, pocket compasses, wrist compasses, assortment and display.

Cell 2 - Mitsui (blue)
Nine categories: (the same plus) lidded pocket compasses and pin-on compasses.

(Click on the pictures for enlarged views)
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- K -

KEUFFEL & ESSER

PROFILE - US manufacturer, New York (for more information click HERE)
See also category Survey & Artillery Compasses.


Open face, black card
(Picture by courtesy of puttyface6)

Hunter case, bar needle		 Technical Data
- Diameter: 45 mm
- Depth: 15 mm
- Weight: 49 gr
- Radium paint markings

(Click on the images for enlarged views)
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KREIS

PROFILE - Swiss clock manufacturers who built from the middle of the 19th c. on compasses into pocket watches and indicated the name of the resellors (jewellers). Here is a beautiful one made for "F. W. KREIS" jeweller in Berlin. The address "Berlin, W." doesn't refer to the partition of Berlin into sectors after WW II but to the old city district West situated South of the prestigious Allee Unter den Linden.
F. W. Kreis imported also watches which were built into the cockpits of the first reconnaissance and combat aircraft during WW I (see the Website of Konrad Knirim about old military watches)

Design: compare with the Swiss made WRIST-TOP compass (see this category)



 Technical Data
- Diameter: 40 mm
- Depth: 10 mm
- Weight: 30 g
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KRÖPLIN

PROFILE - KRÖPLIN is a German company (more information HERE).

The objective of the patent which H. C. Kröplin applied for in 1925 was to make it possible to set a marching course on a compass without having to orientate a map on a table or even on a vertical wall map and to transfer this information onto the compass. The inventor designed for this purpose a card with a (red) pointer that could be taken out of the compass capsule. We know two versions of a simple cylindrical instrument matching the patent's description: the Armeekompaß* and the Marschkompaß.
* The German letter ß ressembling the Greek beta represents in fact 2 s written together, read thus Armeekompass.

NOTE: In our opinion, this invention was pure nonsense since the compass technology already was far more advanced in other systems like the Bézard type created over 20 years before, but the inventor apparently pursued his idée fixe during many years.
- The model Marschkompass was apparently built in a certain quantity since a price is indicated in the original box.
- The model Armeekompass displayed below was probably only a demonstration prototype since it features no luminous markings. The model and manufacturer's names and other patent and design information are anyhow superfluous in a military equipment.


The original celluloid disk with the marching course pointer

The model Marschkompaß assembled

Click on the images for enlarged views
 The price printed inside the box:
M[ark] 7,70



Technical Data
- Diameter: 60mm
- Depth: 20mm
- Weight: 120gr
- Transit lock: excenter in the fitting of the ring
- Protection cap for the card's tab (Armeekompaß only)
- Luminous markings (Marschkompaß only)
- Fixed declination marker
The model Armeekompaß assembled

The graduated removable card was made by Kröplin according to our directives on the base of existing ones (compare with the KRÖPLIN ORION square models).
Pictures courtesy Jaypee
Priv. coll. of the KRÖPLIN company
 PATENT
(click on the picture for page 3, fig.)


(English issue also available,
go to the SHOP for ordering information)

Below: A series model with two covers. The top one protects the compass crystal, the rear one gives way to the insert disk.

Front view, insert in wrong place, N should be aligned on zero!
 
Marking on top cover:
PATENT KRÖPLIN

Click on images for enlarged views



Technical Data
- Dia.: 55mm
- Overall length: 86 mm
- Thickness: 18 mm
- Weight: 125 g
- Transit lock: lever actuated when closing the top cover
- Adaption of magnetic declination via an adjustable device on rear face (2 screws, s. pic. at left)
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CONTINUED