antik.it/Antique-compasses/5020-Bion-compass/
1453802130Code 5020 Bion compassDry antique compass on universal joint signed BION Fils Dunkirk made in the early nineteenth century. Mounted on a walnut plank. Compass card with eight winds printed on paper by engraving on a copper plate. Measurements: diameter of compass 22.5 cm - inch 8.8, width of plank cm 32-inch 11.5 cm, height cm 21-inch 8.3. Very good condition.
This type of compass is mainly used in navigation, so as to constantly stay in the plan even if the surface on which it rests oscillates so as to prevent or limit the disruptive effects of wave motion.
The invention of compass is mysterious but it’s well known that magnetite was discovered in the city of Asia Minor Magnesia. Greeks and the Romans didn’t know the possibility to use magnetic fields for orientation, but this possibility probably was known by the Chinese people: about in 2600 B.C. Hoang-Ti the emperor won Tchi-Yeou the prince using a magic cart, the See-Nan (cart indicating the South), finding the way of escape of the enemy that has been covered by smoke: on this cart there was a rotating human shaped figure with an arm stretched indicating the South (obviously indicating also the North, but the South was the most important cardinal point for the Chinese people). The Chinese people used magnetic fields also for spectacles: throwing magnetized arrows like dice, they indicated south like a magic, amazing the public.
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Antique compasses
Code 5020 Bion compass
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