An old British compass.

The artillery unit I was attached to was still issued these until at least the year 2000. But I also recall many of them being removed from service because of the radiation on them back in the early 90s. Perhaps not all had the radium, or it was removed during overhaul. The CF still had all the repair parts, and all the ones I saw were changed to mils form degrees. The odd one in service was still WW1 dated.
 
I suspect there are many different versions of this particular compass.

I have one that looks very similar to the OPs but that would be where it stops.

Mine was marked with the broad arrow stamp as well and the body is similar but with different markings around the base. They indicate the points on the compass as well as rough degrees. It has a lid lock and a device on the lid to lock the dial in place when it closes.
It has three different indicators on the dial. A gold colored arrow, degrees in five minute increments and degrees in minute increments.

The cover face is marked VERNER'S PATTERN VIII.

The back is marked
1918
E. KOEHN
Geneve Suisse
No 154239

\'/

The dial on it works and is for the most part legible.
The rubber pad is missing from the base.
The lanyard ring is also missing.

I was going to send it to a place in the UK where they repair these and have it restored. The problem is it costs more to refurbish one than it is worth.

This compass owes me nothing. It came from my mother, now deceased, that got it from her brother. All I know about my uncle is that he served in North Africa and Italy. He took a few small things home with him but nothing overly special. Just this and an Italian bayonet he found in a slit trench on a belt still in its scabbard. The soldier that lost it was nowhere to be found.

I think I will leave it as is. I don't want to carry it around the bush because as sure as God make little green apples I will lose it. I have a Viet Nam bring back M42 compass that will do everything I want it to do. It is in mils, has a ###tant and level bubble. I dropped it this fall and broke the glass. Now I have to find a good place to get it replaced and refill the nitrogen.
 
geologist said:
It's a lensatic compass and they are pretty simple to use. Most are for magnetic azimuth so you would need to correct for declination to get a true north azimuth.
Click to expand...

They were called prismatic compasses during my service in the British Army (1980s). I don't think there is any other difference.
 
Last edited:
Knowledge Library Articles ..

1941 MkIII British WWII Military Prismatic Marching Compasshttp://www.milsurps.com/content.php...tish-WWII-Military-Prismatic-Marching-Compass

Also...

With thanks to Advisory Panel member Peter Laidler, a new article has been added to the Technical Articles for Milsurp Collectors and Re-loaders (click here)http://www.milsurps.com/content.php...esearch-for-milsurp-collectors-and-re-loaders.

COMPASS, PRISMATIC, Mk3 (by Peter Laidler) (click here)http://www.milsurps.com/content.php?r=425-COMPASS-PRISMATIC-Mk3-(by-Peter-Laidler)

Article Extract .....

There has been a bit of interest on this forum about these prismatic compasses and the variations that have emerged since they were introduced in……….., well, whenever it was, they seem to have been around since, well, forever! Certainly since my time in the Army, first learning to read a map and compass as a Cadet at school in the early 60’s. They’re of some significance to the Lee Enfield story because the compass was a supplementary issue alongside the equally important binoculars and wris####ch for the snipers. While they’ve all changed slightly, they’re still very similar …... article continues in link shown above .....

(Click PIC to Enlarge)(Click PIC to Enlarge)
Click to expand...

Regards,
Doug[/size]
 
As mentioned earlier that is a Prismatic Compass used by the Artillery to provide orientation to howitzers. Your particular model is in degrees but current production models used by Canada are in Mils. It is hard to tell the condition by the picture but it looks very good. You should be able to check the condition of the eyepiece by flipping up the triangular piece so that it acts as a telescope on the main glass. Looking through the eyepiece should allow you to see the numbers of the compass precisely while being able to use the aiming line on the cover glass. The only observation I have about yours is that the bubble in the oil is defintely not a good a thing, we would send a compass like that for repair. Yours appears to be have produced in 1942 so it may have seen use in WW2 - the serial number would have been recorded in any arty units QM register as these compasses are expensive and would have only been issued to folks trained to record and check howitzers (read Sgts and on up). It is a beautiful piece but value is hard to determine, I would think that if it was used by an Arty Unit in WW2 it would be worth a lot but if not it would just be an interesting piece with a minimal value. As for refurbishment, our compasses are produced in the UK but I believe we can get them re-furbished in Canada whether or not they would be willing to do that for your compass is pretty unlikely. While the design is almost identical to current production you would hurt the value if it turned out to be a true museum piece and it was opened and brought up to modern standards.
 
All interesting info... Thanks everybody.

I'm being told that the compass belonged to an "artillery major" in WWII. I have his name and now I need to find out if I can link it to him some how.

The "oil" is acctualy alcohol. Isopropyl to be exact... At least according to my research. It seems most of the compasses of this age dried up completely. So while the bubble might not be good for use it speaks to the life this particular one has lead since WWII.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom