Liquid Compass
date: label: date made
content: 1919-1947
name: label: maker
content: H. Hughes & Son, Ltd.
notes: label: Description
content: This compass has a black metal bowl gimbal mounted in a mahogany box. The inscriptions read "DEAD BEAT" "C.B. PATENT" "No 11904" "HUSUN," and H. HUGHES & SON, LTD LONDON, PATD GT BRIT. No 127135."
label: Description
content: Hughes trade literature describes this form as having been "especially designed for the navigation of Yachts and Motor Craft, the rapid movements of which demand a compass of exceptional steadiness and sensitivity." To that end, it has a special expansion chamber that "precludes the formation of bubbles in the liquid." The needles are short, and made of cobalt-steel. The card is printed "by a new photographic process that eliminates discoloration." And patented damping filaments ensure the steadiness of the card.
label: Description
content: British Patent #127,135 describes an "Aperiodic Magnetic Compass" made by attaching to the magnetic needle filaments of glass, wire, or other suitable non-magnetic material. This patent was granted in 1919 to George Campbell and Geoffrey Bennett, both of the Compass Department of the British Admiralty.
label: Description
content: H. Hughes & Son, Ltd. was in business, as such, from 1903 to 1947.
label: Description
content: Ref: Henry Hughes & Son, Ltd., <i>Husun "Dead-Beat" Compasses for Yachts</i> (London, 1939).
label: Description
content: H. L. Hitchins and W. E. May, <i>From Lodestone to Gyro-Compass</i> (New York, 1953), pp.150-152.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England, London
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Navigation
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content: Measuring & Mapping
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.337074
label: accession number
content: 1979.0026
label: catalog number
content: 337074
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Nautical Compass (Liquid)
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 9 in; 22.86 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 6 1/2 in x 13 1/2 in x 13 3/8 in; 16.51 cm x 34.29 cm x 33.9725 cm