L'Abée-Lund Norwegian compass
My new book Compass Chronicles has a section dedicated to this Lund compass sundial.
Compass Chronicles describes over 200 different compasses. This first edition,
hard cover book includes over 500 colorful photographs and illustrations
covering the history and evolution of these unique instruments.
This is a special compass. You rarely can you find out any
background and history about a
compass when you see one.
Who it belonged to, where it was in the last 80 years, etc...
Here is his description of this compass:
"It was manufactured by
my grandfather, Johan Henrik L'Abée-Lund,
from approx 1922 to the late 30's. It was then a rather popular
compass in Norway, and was sold also elsewhere in Scandinavia.
The name
"Uhrkompass" means "watch compass", and was meant quite
literally: It could be used as a sundial, with the use of the table on the
backside. But I won't try to translate the whole manual.
The red little ant was a part
of a promotion gimmick. In these days
every product should have a marketing slogan, and for this compass
it was "Mauren i syd" or "The ant to the south", referring to the well
known fact that in the woods you can find approximately south by
looking at what side of the trees the ants have their ant hill."
