australian compass

[olli]

Yesterday i have been to a chandlery in sydney (australia) to buy a compass for my friend in Germany. The salesperson told me the compass would not work in germany if purchased in australia. Could that be;or did he pull my leg? How do you travel around the world if compasses only work lokaly?
Any advice on that subject?
thanks Olli

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[BrendanS]

It's true that some compasses will only work in Northern or Southern hemisphere.
An interesting detail is that there are northern-hemisphere and southern-hemisphere compasses. This is due to the fact that the compass needle tries to point into the earth at the north and south magnetic poles. This means that in the northern hemisphere, the north end of the needle is pulled downwards and so the south end is counter-weighted to balance the needle. Therefore, when you use a northern hemisphere compass in, say Australia, the south end of the magnet is pulled downwards by the magnetic field and is also heavier than the north end - resulting in a needle that catches and drags on the bottom of the compass housing when the compass is held horizontal.

There are however some compasses that will work in both hemispheres


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[MainlySteam]

As Brendan has explained, if the compass is corrected for magnetic dip in one hemisphere then it will not work well (and may even stick because of the card tilt on some courses) in the other hemisphere.

I have been involved with new boats built in the southern hemisphere and shipped to the northern with compasses corrected for northern hemisphere dip. Those compasses during sea trials in the southern hemishere will have their cards tilting steeply to the south when on a northerly course, because the correction and the dip add, and may be unusable on such a course. When the boats are delivered into the northern hemisphere all is well. The problem becomes worse the closer to the magnetic pole you are in the wrong hemisphere.

John

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[bpscmarine]

Let us know the make or type of compass and I am sure we will be able to tell if the compass will work in germany.
www.bpsc-marine.co.uk

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[snowleopard]

some manufacturers sell 3 versions of their compasses, typically for bands 10-70N, 30S-30N, 10-70S. they are the same units with different balace weights on the card.

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[olli]

Hi there,
it is a "danforth- highspeed- constellation" compass
that is all I could find out- I hope that is enough information to determin whether it is the right model to be used in germany or not.
Regards olli

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