Compass/navigation

Im looking for a reasonably close example of a compass for actuall use from mid 18 to mid 19 th cent. Something besides the "1750 copy" that almost every online dealer stocks. Ive found one Im somewhat liking here...
[url] http://scientificsonline.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_3082025[/url]



what do you use??

Personally, when I go into a large area that I'm not familiar with, like a national forest this weekend, I use a brass lensatic compass and topographic maps, sometimes supplemented with satellite photos. I am a lot more interested in knowing where I am than being PC in real woods.

In areas that I’m familiar with I don’t use a compass or map, but when I need to I can use my pocket watch as a rough compass. You can use any watch with real hands (digital doesn’t work!) as a compass for reasonable directions as long as you can locate the sun (provided you know how to do that). That method might be PC, pocket watches have been around for a long time, but I really couldn't say.

You might look at Stanley (http://www.stanleylondon.com/sextcomp.htm), they have a lot of various brass compasses, maybe their brass Pocket Compass with a hinged lid would be more PC (I don't know if it's PC or not for your time period).

:redface: A Marble's brass-case pocket compass (about 1" diameter).



Not correct, but at least it's semi-not modern. I only flush it out when I'm lost or alone so it don't matter. :haha:

Stanley of London has some nice stuff, but not as good as what you have already found. Most of the brass types that Stanley has is of heavy brass. The one you found looks to be lighter, and more compact.

Stump, I don't know which gen Marble's you have, but a word to the wise: I had one I got about fifteen years ago. Made pretty much like the old ones, with the needle pin stuck in the back of the compass and a sure 'nough glass crystal. Loved that little thing, wore it around my neck like a talisman, but managed eventually to put it through the wash. Busted it all to rat---. Coupla years ago, I sent off for another. Bloody danged thing was just a brass housing with a no'count Chicom plastic thing inside. Ended up firing it into the rhubarb one day.

Shall keep an eye on this thread to see what folks come up with.

IT Isnt PC but a GPS will do the trick, keep it hidden in your pack. Bob

really old, i gotta tell ya... before my Dad died, he worked at a ships chandlery (no, those things had nothing to do with each other) and since he sold so many GPS units, the sales rep gave him one, which he in turn gave to me 'cause he already had on for his boat. i tried it and, i must admit, i was disappointed.

really, i was ready to admit that this was the next best thing to making smoke, but i couldn't for the life of me get it to work for %^&*! perhaps i wasn't gettig the settings dialed in properly, or perhaps i am too picky, but i learned how to navigate on a military 'one over fifty' with a discrimination of less than twenty meters (for the cognoscenti, the Special Forces qualification course is ten meters, so i'm what you'd call high average on a good day, and close enough for government work on an off day)... with the GPS, i feel lucky to be in the same zip code. took the thing down a six hundred and twenty foot driveway, and it told me i hadn't moved.

What???!

so, i keep it (sentimental value and all), but i still rely on the hikers map (which is one over twenty four, and gives me about double the info of the maps i read when i was jumping out of airplanes for a living.

by the way- if you're not going to PC it, get a Silva.

thus endeth the tirade

msw

Trapper,

I like the rose on that one better than any of the small ones I've seen from Stanley of London. They are all too modern looking. Says its out of stock, so I'll bookmark and check back. Although I'd rather it were plain brass I could rub down with BP fouling than the pre-antiqued stuff. I teach orienteering and land nav every year and have a bit of a fetish for maps and compasses, both old and new. Thanks...

MSW,
People get in trouble with GPS units when they treat them as a black box. You have to know what you're doing with the unit and the old-school compass and map to interpret what the unit says. They will occasionally lie to you. I've had them plot me in a meadow 1.5 km from the ridge I was standing on. That said they are darned handy and I use them a lot for work. They really help me keep from having to find the college kids who work for me at night on the mountain. However, sometimes I get sentimental for the good old days when we didn't have them and still had to find where were were going and hit the bulls-eye at midnight in the mountains on foot. I teach the old school way and the GPS and tell people that you can't do the latter without the former.

Sean

MSW,
On GPS accuracy; I worked on that project in the 80s. I got one of the first model of hand-held GPS units made, donated by the company. I think the retail on it then was about $1000. It ate batteries, 4 batteries lasting about 2 hours. And truthfully it wasn't all that good, had difficulty locking on to satellite signals, and often had errors in position of hundreds of meters. There were ways you could improve the accuracy by changing various parameters in the unit (which is one thing you can't do with most current model units), but you had to know fairly technical details of how the system worked to do that, and even then errors were 50 to 100 or more meters sometimes (Although I have to admit that is still a lot better than classical Celestial Navigation, which typically has an accuracy of between 1 and 5 nautical miles.)

Last Christmas my wife gave me a new handheld unit, a Magellan. Costs something like $150, lasts 24 hours on a set of batteries, weighs 1/4 as much and is half the size. But most importantly it is routinely within 10 meters when I compare it to my position on a topo map (that’s assuming that I found my position on the map correctly :haha: ).

My point is that if you have an older unit you might want to look at a current model, there have been VAST improvements, both in cost and accuracy. You can still spend $1000s if you want lots of bells and whistles, but if you just want your position in lat-lon or UTM, you can get units starting at about $100

got the top of the line garmin($500)and topo and highway maps(another $500) and it will show if i forgot to zip up. even works indoors if around windows.

take care, daniel

Squirrel Tail. you can still use a digital watch to find South. Only you have to note the time and draw the watch dial on the ground with a stick. takes a little longer.

Thanks folks, I have looked at some of the ones mentioned one of the brass cased ones on the london site looks pretty good as a second choice.

The one i picked out at the top wasnt sold out when i posted....I guess several like minded ppl bout one or two haha...

I do have a whole drawer full of compasses, different makes and models, my favorite just a very basic silva. I recently retired from the USAF and had to do the 10M land nav course at least once a year, (a 1:50K map and a good plotter you can get anywhere)

I also have several gps's and can find just about anything with one. In the summer months the whole familly goes "geocaching" If your having troubles with yours expecially an older one made prior to when clinton turned off the selective availbilty functions of the sat system that could part of the problem. they could have up to a 5K margine of error. Most of the newer models have only margin of error less than 50 feet depending on cloud cover and terrin.

Allmost my gear is slowly getting replaced with an "older style" and i have more fun with it, so a compass is next on my list...

BST

Hi Duck! I never thought of that! Cool! Thanks. :thumbsup:

Big, if you get one of those at the top of the page, I hope you'll report back with a critique. :hatsoff:

.....with your Cell Phone?..... :shocked2:

Just kidding!.... :haha: :rotf:

Now, I'm not trying to be too critical, so don't take this wrong but I was under the impression that this web site was leaning twords doing thing the old way. I see most of you fellas dressed up in primative equipment in your avitars but talking about using GPS's?
I personally use a old brass compass with a sundial mounted on the top. It works great. Out here in Colorado with lots of mountains to look at, one can figure out where your at by simply pointing the compass at the mountain and taking a reading. Now was that overly simplified? Yes but it's alot easier to learn about triangulating with a compass than learning about GPS navigation. The best part is, compasses don't need batteries, you can get them wet and they don't smoke, you can drop them and they don't go dark. If you break it, you simply put the needle back on the post and it points north. What a wonderful contraption.
Now, I'm sure most of your are going to take my post personally, please don't. I'm just trying to suggest an alternative to Electronic Gizmo's that cost lots of money.

Regards
Loyd Shindelbower
Loveland Colorado

That's one thing I love about Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, LONG open views! Where I hunt the longest view is typically under 200 feet. 75 to 100 feet is common. Triangulating isn't all that useful when you can't see anything but solid forest after 100 feet.

Usually I use topo maps and a compass when I go out, but if I'm going into a large area (like a national forest of 500,000 acres) that I haven't been in before I'm afraid that I do take the gps and topo maps. :surrender:

I recently got the small brass Stalney London one with the sundial. Only thing I have a problem with is the rotary chart on the underside of the lid. I can't figure out how to read it.

Loyd said:

Now, I'm not trying to be too critical, so don't take this wrong but I was under the impression that this web site was leaning twords doing thing the old way. I see most of you fellas dressed up in primative equipment in your avitars but talking about using GPS's?

Click to expand...

Everyone draws the line in a different place. Unless it's a juried event, it doesn't matter what others do.

Some folks only want to shoot a "muzzleloader" (everything else is modern) and some go all out to try and recreate the past (as much as is possible). There's no right or wrong, it's just what people choose.

this one looks almost as nice as the one at the top. (which still no reply as to when it will be instock...)



powderburner
Not sure how I missed these from stanleys...
Are they actually made in england or farmed out to some asian country?? Fit and finish aceeptable for dailey use?? your thoughts please.

I looked at the chart from the online pics that is confusing w/o holding it in hand...

Stanleys just might get a call from me after christmas....