Posted by John Nichols on September 12, 2003 at 01:17:34 from 165.91.196.181 user Mcneacail.
In Reply to: Re: Compass (and War) posted by Jerry Crouch on September 12, 2003 at 00:25:57:
Compasses
I have spent a happy hour on the web looking at old and new compasses
I have only found one compass of any vintage that did not use degrees past NE SE etc. That was a German pocket compass of WW1.
I doubt that John used such a compass.
Even the best prismatic compasses of today seem to only accurate to about 2.5 degrees and I suspect about 5 degrees in a real life situation.
Which means that the children were assumed by AR to be able to translate the angles to the boxed compass. Or AR was using a ships compass with the naval bearings.
I am more confused now than when I started.
But at least I know that I can get a good Silva compass for about 40 bucks.