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compass Quick reference
World Encyclopedia
Direction-finding instrument also used to show direction of a magnetic field. It is a horizontal magnetic needle on a
compass Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance
The simplest form of compass was a magnetized needle lodged in a straw or piece of cork and floating in a basin of water. From the twelfth century compass needles were placed on a pivot ...
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compass Quick reference
The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea (2 ed.)
in present parlance the instrument by means of which a ship may be steered on a course and by means of which ...
compass Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (2 ed.)
the use of the compass for navigation at sea was reported from China c.1100, western Europe 1187, Arabia c....
compass, magnetic and mariner’s Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages
The earliest written evidence of a magnetized needle used to find direction comes from China c.
con, cond
From the Anglo-Saxon connan, to know, to be skilful, or possibly from the Latin conducere, to lead or conduct, the giving of the necessary orders to the helmsman to steer a ship in a required ...
fly
1 The old maritime word for the compass card from the time it was pivoted in the compass bowl and thus able to revolve freely.2 The part of a flag, ensign, or pennant furthest from the jackstaff or ...
gyrocompass
A gyroscope that is driven continuously so that it can be used as a nonmagnetic compass. When the earth rotates the gyroscope experiences no torque if its spin axis is parallel to the earth's axis; ...
head
A much used maritime word meaning the top or forward part. The top edge of a four-sided sail is the head, the top of the mast is the masthead, the head of a ship is the bows (but the ship's head ...
navigation
N.1 the process or activity of accurately ascertaining one's position and planning and following a route.2 the passage of ships.navigational adj.n.1 the process or activity ...
pelorus
A circular ring fitted to the rim of a compass bowl and carrying two sighting vanes, used to take azimuths of celestial objects. The ring can be easily revolved and the compass bearing read off by ...
Petrus Peregrinus of Maricourt
(fl. 13th century)A physician and possibly crusader in the service of Charles I of Anjou, who dabbled with perpetual motion using magnetism, which led him to investigate the properties ...
signals at sea
Can be broadly divided historically into day signals, night signals, wireless telegraphy, and modern radio communications, and a brief history of the development of each can be found below.Day ...
to shoot
A verb with more than one nautical meaning. A navigator is said to shoot the sun, or any heavenly body, when he takes its altitude with a sextant. A sailing vessel is said to shoot, or fore-reach, ...
travel and mobility
Travel and mobility were vital dimensions to life during the MA. By the central MA, diplomats, merchants, military and mendicant orders, and Jewish communities had established networks linking their ...
William Gilbert
(1540–1603),physician to Elizabeth I and James I. He declared the earth to be a magnet in his De Magnete (1600), the first great scientific book to be published in England.
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