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Large brass nautical compass signed OBSERVATOR Rotterdam of the 1930s
About the Item
Large brass liquid compass signed OBSERVATOR Rotterdam from the 1930s. Eight-twenty rose complete with goniometric circle.
Compass diameter cm 21.5 - 8.5 in, height cm 10.5 - 4.1 in.
The last photo is the gift box.
OBSERVATOR was a Dutch firm in Rotterdam, founded in 1924, later bought by Kelvin Hughes in 1996. He produced various instruments including sextants, etc.
The Greeks and the Romans were still unaware of the possibility of harnessing magnetic fields for orientation, while it seems that this possibility was already somewhat known to the Chinese: around 2600 B.C. Emperor Hoang-Ti was able to overcome Prince Tchi-Yeou in battle thanks to a "magic" chariot, the See-Nan (chariot pointing south). The emperor, thanks to this device, identified the enemy's escape route, despite the fact that the enemy had concealed it through a blanket of smoke: fixed on the chariot was a human-shaped wooden silhouette that rotated on itself and, with its arm outstretched, always pointed south (pointing south of course was also pointing north at the same time, but south was considered by the Chinese to be the most important cardinal point).
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