Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/256

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From this it would seem that the compasses used at that time by English mariners were of a very primitive description. Barlowe, in his treatise Magnetical Advertisements, printed in 1616 (p. 66), complains that "the Compasse needle, being the most admirable and usefull instrument of the whole world, is both amongst ours and other nations for the most part, so bungerly and absurdly contrived, as nothing more." The form he recommends for the needle is that of "a true circle, having his Axis going out beyond the circle, at each end narrow and narrower, unto a reasonable sharpe point, and being pure steele as the circle it selfe is, having in the middest a convenient receptacle to place the capitell in." In 1750 Dr Gowan Knight found that the needles of merchant-ships were made of two pieces of steel bent in the middle and united in the shape of a rhombus, and proposed to substitute straight steel bars of small breadth, suspended edgewise, and hardened throughout. He also showed that the Chinese mode of suspending the needle conduces most to sensibility. In 1820 Prof. Barlow reported to the Admiralty that half the compasses in the Royal Navy were mere lumber, and ought to be destroyed. Since then many improved varieties of ships compasses have been introduced, of which may be mentioned those of Pope, Preston, Walker, Dent, Stebbing, Gowland, Gray, Duchemin, and Harris. In the last the needle turns upon a point which is the centre of a doubly-curved bar of copper, fixed as a diameter to a ring of the same metal. In the Admiralty compass the bowl is of copper, the card of mica; and compound magnetic bars, as proposed by Scoresby, are employed.}}

EB9 Sir William Thomson's Compass-card.png —Plan and Transverse Section of Sir William Thomson's Compass-card.

B, Corrector for quadrantal error; C, Box for corrector; a, Aluminium boss; b. Central cap of sapphire; c, Cords connecting rim and boss; d, Magnets e, Threads connecting magnets; f, Aluminium rim; f′, Cords supporting magnets; g.g′. Knife edges for gimbals.

1em 1em  COMPIÈGNE, a town of France, at the head of an arrondissement, in the department of Oise, situated on the left bank of the Oise, which is there crossed by a handsome bridge of three arches, 36 miles east of Beauvais, on the railway between Paris and St Quentin, in 49º 25′ 4′′ N. lat. and 2º 49′ 35′′ E. long. It is famous as the occasional residence of the French kings from a very early period; and it possesses a considerable number of fine edifices. Among these may be mentioned the church of St Jacques, of the 13th century; Saint Antoine, of the 15th and 16th; the town-house, a picturesque building of the late Gothic style, dating from the 16th; the theatre; and the royal palace, which is one of the most extensive and magnificent structures of the kind in France. It wag erected mainly under Louis XV. and XVI., but large additions have been made in more recent times. The gardens are beautifully laid out, and in the neighbourhood is the famous forest of Compiègne, which covers an area of 30,000 acres, and includes the site of the camp constructed by Cæsar in his campaign against the Bellovaci. The town is the seat of a civil and a commercial tribunal, and has a communal college, a public library, and a museum in the town-hall. The principal manufactures are hosiery, muslins, ropes, and wooden wares; and there is a fair trade in corn and wood. Population in 1872, 11,859 in the town, and 12,281 in the commune.

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