Opus1
January 7, 2003, 4:44am
1
My dad has a standard Warren-Knight compass with a fold-down lid. When you lift the lid up, there is a 6x6 number table at the bottom, with a line emanating from the top of it to the other side of the lid. The number table is the numbers 1-36, with each odd row backwards, so row one is 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and row 2 is 7, 8, 9, etc., row three is 18, 17, 16, etc. Think of starting in the upper right, and snaking across to the bottom right. Can anyone tell me what the heck this table is for or what it means? Thanks.
Just guessing that it’s a “fixed declination scale” for figuring compass magnetic variations, but I don’t understand how it works, sorry.
http://www.suuntousa.com/products_comp.htm
http://mac.usgs.gov/mac/isb/pubs/factsheets/fs03501.html
One thing to remember is that a compass does not really point to true north, except by coincidence in some areas. The compass needle is attracted by magnetic force, which varies in different parts of the world and is constantly changing. When you read north on a compass, you’re really reading the direction of the magnetic north pole. A diagram in the map margin will show the difference (declination) at the center of the map between compass north (magnetic north indicated by the MN symbol) and true north (polar north indicated by the “star” symbol). This diagram also provides the declination between true north and the orientation of the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) grid north (indicated by the GN symbol). The declination diagram is only representational, and true values of the angles of declination should be taken from the numbers provided rather than from the directional lines. Because the magnetic declination is computed at the time the map is made, and because the position of magnetic north is constantly changing, the declination factor provided on any given map may not be current. To obtain current and historical magnetic declination information for any place in the United States, contact…
bare
January 7, 2003, 5:24am
3
Sounds like sections in a Township to me, though why they would be on a compass lid is beyond me.
A township is made up of 36 sections aligned as you describe.