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Code 8184
EUR 600.00
In stock
1759936814Code 8184 Small CompassSmall turned brass travel compass with cover, eight-wind compass card rose, and protractor circle from copperplate engraving.
English manufacture, second half of the 19th century.
Good condition, signs of use, fully functional.
Dimensions: 5.5 x 2.4 inches – 2.2 x 1 inches
The Greeks and Romans were still unaware of the possibility of exploiting magnetic fields for orientation, while it seems that this possibility was already somewhat known to the Chinese: around 2600 BC, Emperor Hoang-Ti managed to defeat Prince Tchi-Yeou in battle thanks to a "magic" chariot, the See-Nan (chariot indicating the south). Thanks to this device, the emperor identified the enemy's escape route, even though the enemy had hidden it with a blanket of smoke. Fixed to the chariot was a wooden human-shaped figure that rotated on itself and, with an outstretched arm, always pointed south (indicating south obviously also indicated north, but south was considered the most important cardinal point by the Chinese).
The first references to the use of instruments that exploited magnetic force for navigation in Europe date back to the late 12th century, largely thanks to the knowledge brought by Arab merchants and navigators: we find references in Alexander Neckam's "De nominibus utensilium" and in the works of Guyot de Provins, in which the lodestone is described as a "sailor's companion." The inventory of a 13th-century Sicilian ship, the San Nicolò, also mentions the presence on board of a lodestone and a "wooden compass."
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Antique compasses
Code 8184 Small Compass
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