BS: In Praise of the Compass

Subject: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: GUEST,Doc John
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 01:10 PM

What a superb instrument this is: no batteries needed, it doesn't crash, doesn't need servicing by a gobbledegook talking nerd, doesn't send incomprehensible messages, never needs upgrading, uneffected by viruses, compatible with everything, never lets me down, doesn't send me down roads narrower then my car....and mine's 50 years old. Beat that!

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: gnu
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 01:50 PM

Mine's over 150 years old. Of course, I use(d) my plastic Sylva that I was given when I was a lad.

Bro, RCAF, had one just like my Sylva (maybe it was a Sylva) that had some kinda nuke in it so it could be read in complete darkness.

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: GUEST,999
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 02:10 PM

The only compass I have is billions of years old. Don't know what the heck I'll do if I ever end up in the southern hemisphere.

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: gnu
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 02:21 PM

Hahahahaa. Cute.

Walk backwards?

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: GUEST,999
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 02:37 PM

Align a sewing needle north-south. Smack it with a hammer. Gently put it in water without breaking the surface tension. It will point north.

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: Greg F.
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 02:38 PM

Click Here

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: GUEST,999
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 02:41 PM

Some folks ain't got the brains god gave a turnip.

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: Greg F.
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 02:46 PM

And more of 'em by the hour, Bruce!

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: GUEST,Doc John
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 02:47 PM

Slide rule...ditto

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: Greg F.
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 02:52 PM

Nah, the slide rule with all the guestimation/interpolation involved was a real pain in the ass.

The pocket calculator was one of the best inventions of the 29th century.

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: Greg F.
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 02:52 PM

or even the 20th century.

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: GUEST,Blind DRunk in Blind River
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 02:56 PM

My vote is fer the crowbar, eh? It is a good flippin' tool that, like, don't have no fiddley movin' parts to flip things up and I have used it to get into and out of more than a flippin' few places, eh? A flippin' crowbar will never fail youse in a time of yer need...and it can also be, like, used fer selfed offecne too.

- Shane

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: gnu
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 03:06 PM

Greg F... depends what yer doin wih a slide rule. Most engineers built (and destroyed) the world without computers until around 1970 and did a reasonable job.

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: Greg F.
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 03:11 PM

Didn't say they didn't WORK, gnu- I had to use one all thru college- but they sure were a pain in the ass!!

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: GUEST,999
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 03:18 PM

`I had to use one all thru college- but they sure were a pain in the ass!!`

You took some bad advice, Greg.

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 03:21 PM

Silvas always have luminous blobs.
One on the N tip, one on the line of march and one on 0 degrees.
Military ones are in mils.

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: Jack Campin
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 05:14 PM

Compasses do have one part that will inevitably wear out - the glow.

The WW2-era British Army Mark 3 used radium. This has now been banned as too dangerous (it is well known that children make a habit of licking the paint off compass dials). So they use tritium now. But tritium only has a half-life of about 12 years, against 1000-odd for radium.

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: Joe_F
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 06:29 PM

Perhaps the most astonishing invention I have heard of is the gyrocompass. It found true north by sensing the earth's rotation. To do that it had to average out all the rolling, pitching, & yawing of whatever it was mounted in. No electronics, no lasers -- entirely mechanical (if you count hydraulics). There really ought to be one in a museum somewhere.

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: Little Hawk
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 07:13 PM

"I had to use one all thru college- but they sure were a pain in the ass!!"

They are not supposed to be used for that purpose, Greg. ;-D

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 07:43 PM

I think you were using the wrong sort .... the one to draw circles?

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: GUEST,mark-s(on the road)
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 08:16 PM

"I had to use one all thru college- but they sure were a pain in the ass!!"

Thats because the holster for your K+E log log decitrig is worn in the front!

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: gnu
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 08:48 PM

Keith A of Hertford... not mine. And the one my Bro had was probably radium.

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: CapriUni
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 08:50 PM

When I clicked I wasn't sure which "Compass" this was about -- the navigational aid, or the drawing aid. I'm particularly fond of the drawing aid myself, but the steps for drawing a pentagram with a straight edge are remarkably hard to remember (there are an awful lot, I do remember that).

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: EBarnacle
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 10:07 PM

The outer case for my K and E log log duplex decitrig cam with instructions to keep the leather properly oiled. This was to facilitate various functions...and to keep the leather alive.

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 10:21 PM

Maybe she should have had a compass ... or ... even a slide rule.

in praise of the compass

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: Rapparee
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 10:55 PM

Yes and following the instructions of a GPS-location-map-driving instructions thingie got a family in Oregon well into shit a year or so ago. Sent them up a logging road, where they became stranded in the snow (no cell phone service out in that kind of boonies!). Finally the father decided to try to walk for help -- he died a mile or so from the car, which was found a day or so later.

Gimme a map and a compass (I have several, including a couple of lensatic [engineering, marching] ones). I have nothing at all against GPS units, but they require power and if that goes, you could quite literally be dead.

Of course, as with the slide rule (I have four or five around) you have to learn how to USE a map and a compass correctly....

The US military compass uses both degrees/minutes and mils.

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: GUEST,Paul Burke
Date: 04 Mar 11 - 02:05 AM

The magnetic compass is not infallible. A few years ago, I was walking on Stanton Moor in Derbyshire, close to the ancient Nine Ladies stone circle. A young chap was leading a group of even younger youths, and was attempting to show them how to take a bearing with a Silva compass- he was standing in the middle of the stone circle and using the King Stone, the summer solstice sunrise marker, as a target. He couldn't get a bearing on it at all to match the reading from the map.

I got chatting to him, and he told me about his trouble. I pointed out that he was standing in an area of ancient power, so he could expect some magical disturbance.

I also pointed out that his anorak's front pocket was full of small change, and since the eighties "copper" coins in the UK have been made of plated steel...

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: Darowyn
Date: 04 Mar 11 - 03:32 AM

"Never needs upgrading"!?
You've never studied Navigation then!
Magnetic North is not true North, and the variation and deviation changes slightly from year to year.
At times (not recently though) the complete polarity of the Earth's magnetic field can reverse, so your compass would then point South(ish)
Following on from the observation about the coins in the pocket spoiling the bearing reading, I used to convince Marine Engineering students of my mystical powers by making mysterious passes over a ships compass and making the needle follow my hand.
It was only afterwards that I told them that I had been wearing one of those copper bangles with magnets on it- but it made the point that you can not take a compass for granted.
Cheers
Dave

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 04 Mar 11 - 03:41 AM

but the steps for drawing a pentagram with a straight edge are remarkably hard to remember (there are an awful lot, I do remember that).

With a compass and a ruler, there are only five steps to constructing the first side of a pentagon, and you can step off that chord of the circle around the circumference and connect the dots to get a pentagram.

The simplicity of that construction, known centuries ago, and the even simpler construction of the hexagon is cited as the reason there are "60 minutes to the hour" since the difference between 1/5 of a rotation and 1/6 of one is 1/30th, and bisecting a chord subtending 1/30th of a circle readily gives 1/60th of a circle. Since this cleverly evaded the necessity of trisecting an angle (a classic problem) it was considered somewhat "magical" and prevented the clock faces marked off by early clockmakers from being easily replicated by plagiarists who didn't know the trick.

(Note: urban legend content above.)

John

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 04 Mar 11 - 04:34 AM

Actually John, the ancient 'rule of thumb' is that if you hold your arm straight out in front of you, and sight with one eye either side of the thumb, guess how many degrees of arc that is.... and how many times does that step around the circle with that radios ... ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 04 Mar 11 - 04:51 AM

Yes I praise the compass, anyone who knows me would tell you that I have no sense of direction whatsoever.

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 04 Mar 11 - 05:08 AM

A compass can break, be stolen or lost, be scratched up, be de-/remagnetized, be inaccurate due to geography etc. It can bulge up your pockets, make holes to them, scratch your leg infectiously so you may die. When you really need it, you have probably forgotten it at home. You need instructions, the manual is usually incomprehensible.

There is clear evidence that terrorists, nazis and communists use compasses to prepare their most atrocious crimes.

For many millenia the sun, the stars, and a good knowledge of the countryside were good enough for people to find their way - why start with that fashionable nonsense?!

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: GUEST,Alan Whittle
Date: 04 Mar 11 - 05:09 AM

The water closet, and the lavatory brush. and soft toilet paper.

If i find myself in a strange place, and i don't know where the toilet is, I generally ask the way. rather than use a compass, or a slide rule.

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 04 Mar 11 - 05:47 AM

Well, they would probably scratch the sensitive parts too ...

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 04 Mar 11 - 06:11 AM

And maps, even if you've been looking at them upside down. Oh and reading glasses.

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 04 Mar 11 - 06:12 AM

And ring pulls on baked bean cans.

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: Will Fly
Date: 04 Mar 11 - 07:23 AM

I'm told that the Earth's magnetic field is due to reverse in the near future - possibly next Wednesday. Which is a bit of a bugger because I've just ordered a DVD copy of "North By North West" - presumably now to be retitled "South By South East".

Anyone remember the song, "South, To Alaska"?

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: Greg F.
Date: 04 Mar 11 - 10:04 AM

That's because the holster for your K+E log log decitrig is worn in the front!

DAMN! Wish somebody had told me back then.

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 04 Mar 11 - 10:44 AM

Foolestroupe says: Actually John, the ancient 'rule of thumb' is that if you hold your arm straight out in front of you, ...

I must protest that both he and Chongo quite likely have significantly different arm-length to eyeball-separation ratios than I do, hence the ratio - and the subtended angle - is quite variable.

It would also vary with who (Foolestroupe or Chongo) has the fatter thumb. I would suspect that Chongo's is the wider, but on all occasions when an estimate might be made he seems to have had something stuck to his thumb in a manner that obscures accurate assessment of the dimension. Insufficient opportunities for observation fail to indicate the relative cleanliness of Foolestroupes thumb.

I won't venture a guess as to which would have the wider eye-to-eye separation.

John

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: Rapparee
Date: 04 Mar 11 - 10:46 AM

Gee, I've never had problems with my compasses, except that my wife wonders why I take them with me when I go out somewhere in the woods.... You could get lost without a com...wait a minute! Something just occurred to me....

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 04 Mar 11 - 04:02 PM

But if someone composed an "Ode to a Compass" would it have to be sung as a round?

(Of course "Praise for Stiction" has always been a sort of a jig - right?.)

John

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: gnu
Date: 04 Mar 11 - 04:18 PM

Minds me of the many times I used my Silva to go in and specnd the day and come back out less thn 100m from where I went in. Except when it was sunny and then I never even looked at it. I wish I was young again... nothing compares to spending the day in our heavy cover eastern brush woods... an adventure every time you head in.

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 04 Mar 11 - 05:31 PM

"It would also vary with who (Foolestroupe or Chongo) has the fatter thumb"

I thought you were going to say 'fatter head', which may affect the 'arm-length to eyeball-separation ratio' ...

But seriously, since it was discovered that human anatomy is remarkably consistent in its ratios (and always the same for a single person), the 'rule of thumb' method is remarkably reliable, especially if a single cave age guy (married ones would not have the time to spare!) were to use this method to transpose a map pf the stars onto a cave wall....

I'm not making this up, you know, there have been studies (even documentaries) as to the real meanings of many of those cave wall paintings being maps of the sky.

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: GUEST,Alan Whittle
Date: 04 Mar 11 - 09:40 PM

Thankyou Lord for the compass
North South East and West
Though it doesn't help you come past things
As its name might just suggest

Some compasses swing from a boy scouts belt
And some fit in a binnacle
I think they're pretty boring
But perhaps I'm being cynical.

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: GUEST,Chongo Chimp
Date: 04 Mar 11 - 10:05 PM

Compasses are pretty cool, no doubt about it. Specially when yer at sea. I have a real good sense of direction on land and I don't get lost, but on the water is a whole different kettle of fish, ya might say! That's when I need a compass.

But I would like to put in a good word for a coupla my favorite tools.

1. The Tommy Gun. Always keep a full clip and an extra drum or 2 handy. Watch fer it climbin' when ya fire a burst and remember to aim low. Never fails ya.

2. The monkey wrench. Aside from the somewhat specist name, this time-honored device is a real useful thing to have around. What the Tommy Gun can't solve, the monkey wrench probably can, and it don't need reloadin'.

3. The glass. It holds yer drink. Enough said.

- Chongo

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 04 Mar 11 - 11:13 PM

How's yer thumb, Chongo?

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: GUEST,999
Date: 05 Mar 11 - 05:47 PM

"But if someone composed an "Ode to a Compass" would it have to be sung as a round?"

Just when you think all's right with the world . . . .

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 05 Mar 11 - 07:41 PM

"But if someone composed an "Ode to a Compass" would it have to be sung as a round?"

Depending on whether you were boxing the compass, I suppose ...

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: GUEST,Alan Whittle
Date: 05 Mar 11 - 07:56 PM

Some boyscouts caused a right rumpus
cos each of them carried a compass
Every day
They sent folks the wrong way
They got told,'Stick that thing up your jumpers!'

Subject: RE: BS: In Praise of the Compass
From: GUEST,EBarnacle
Date: 05 Mar 11 - 08:00 PM

Ther've been a few times I have gotten turned around in fog until I remembered to focus on my compass and not what I thought I should be doing.