Colorado Paper - Improved French Pocket-Compass

The Transactions of the Institute contain nothing, as yet, on the subject of pocket-compasses; and in the belief that American miners, explorers, geologists, and engineers will gladly welcome any infor mation about new forms of apparatus, simple in construction and adapted to rapid use, I offer a short description of an improved French combination pocket-compass, which, if once introduced into use, would seem likely to supersede similar instrumens of older pattern. The instrument in my possession I owe to the kindness of M. G. de.La Bouglise, of Paris. The frame of the compass is a double-bottomed box, 2 1/2 inches square and 9/16 of an inch high, made of white metal, and with its sur faces very carefully planed. The sides of the box make true right angles with each other. Two sides are parallel with, and two are normal to, the north and south line of the principal graduation. The bottom is accurately planed, so that the instrument will lie true on a plane surface. A glass, 2 3/8 inches in diameter, is set in the top plate. The graduation for the needle is engraved on the upper face of a ring, connected with the flat disk, in which the center-pin is in serted. Between this disk and the bottom of the box there is a hollow space a quarter of an inch deep. The needle is 1 7/8 inches in length, and can be balanced by means of a small sliding piece of metal. The graduation extends from 0° to 360°, reading from right to left. The stopping of the needle is effected by a screw, A, on the side of the box near the handle, H (Fig. 1). There is also a clinometer attachment, the graduation for which is engraved on the upper face of the silver-plated disk. The compass has two sights. The north sight, B, is a simple pin, a little more than an inch high, which, when not in use, is kept folded down, and is partially protected by the exterior sliding-plate, C. When raised for use, the sight is stopped in a vertical position by a projecting pin attached to the side of the box.. The south sight, D, is connected with the handle, H, and the sight and handle