🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Looking for Brass Compass Info

[ANTIQUARIAN]

A friend of mine cleaned up an old compass he found in a river in Quebec this past summer. He hasn’t found out much about it, just a very small mark beside the S ''Made in France.'' The degrees are for marine-use he believes, but that’s about it. He also feels it was made around 1900. The needle is fused to the case, so it doesn’t move any more. What I find odd, is that it was made in France but it has English heading directions, W for West E for East. Unless that was a world standard for compasses or an export version? I suspect that the letters are in English because it may have been made for export. I'm thinking that most maps were made in English by the late-19thc, not all, but most.

I apologize in advance for the quality of the pics, but these are what he sent me.

Thanks for your help,
Dave

 

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[Charlie P. (NY)]

Doesn’t appear that needle ever operated as a compass. That could be the bearing needle and the actual compass needle was placed in the center hole.

It seems the “O” was replaced with an English “E” - possibly because a LOT oF English speakers were in France around the mid 1910’s . ;-)

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

cool relic.

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Doesn’t appear that needle ever operated as a compass. That could be the bearing needle and the actual compass needle was placed in the center hole.

It seems the “O” was replaced with an English “E” - possibly because a LOT oF English speakers were in France around the mid 1910’s . ;-)

Thanks for the information Charlie... I had know idea this was done.
Dave

 

[Red-Coat]

It seems the “O” was replaced with an English “E” - possibly because a LOT oF English speakers were in France around the mid 1910’s . ;-)

Thanks for the information Charlie... I had know idea this was done.
Dave

Personally, I doubt that to be the reason.

Since your friend says it is marked "Made in France" (in English) then I would say your initial thought that this was made for export is correct. Origin markings for export to English-speaking countries must be in English, but there's no reason for that to be the case for items sold in France.