Medieval Mariner's Compass

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The mariner’s compass is a navigational instrument utilized by various seafarers from at least the Middle Ages through the mass reception of navigational radar in the mid-20th century. In its most rudimentary form, it consists of a magnetic needle attached to a wind rose or compass card in such a manner that when placed on a pivot in a box fastened in line with the keel of a ship the card would turn as the ship changed directions, indicating always what course the ship was on in relation to North, since the needle would point in that direction, at least in the European version. Functionally, the compass did not remain in the water, used only by a specialized class of navigators; it slowly moved landward, later developed as the pocket compass for hiking and camping. Though there has been much historical contention regarding the origins of the compass, it remains clear that it is one of the first technologies to harness and instrumentalize magnetic energy. In addition, the mariner’s compass also serves as the beginnings of the rise of secularity and empirical science (especially experimentation through the figure of Franciscan monk Roger Bacon), which wrought an interesting relationship with theology, and in particular a certain form of mathematical knowledge: geometric and trigonometric. Socio-historically, the compass, as Frederic Lane rightly notes, constitutes one node of the conditions of possibility for the colonial Europeanization of the non-Western world, allowing for ships and navigators to venture farther into what was then “uncharted waters.” Though the compass would take on various forms after the Middle Ages most recently radar and GPS (global positioning system), this dossier will be concerned mostly on the specific developments during the Middle Ages (though this historical period itself is fraught with ontological and epistemological slippages).


The Early Compass

The (Ur-) Compass’ Chinese Roots

The compass, as it is conceived of today, has its immediate roots in the Middle Ages. Yet, for medieval historians of technology, it has been fodder for debate, especially as its “true” origins have been quite difficult to verify with historical evidence. Yet, almost all medievalists understand the compass to have Chinese roots. By 83 AD, the Han Dynasty had been utilizing magnetism for geomancy—the divination of land and topography, with a technology referred to as the “the south-pointing spoon.” [PICTURE] The process of magnetizing metals was simply to rub the metal with a lodestone, a variation of magnetite. And by 8th century AD, various textual sources suggest that Chinese sailors and navigators were utilizing the earliest version of the compass for navigation, what the scholar Barbara Kruetz calls the “ur-compass,” which consisted of a magnetized needle, floating in a bowl of water or hanging from a thread (Gies and Gies). And perhaps, most significantly, unlike the compasses of today, that finds its technological ancestors in Europe, the magnetized needle on this version of the compass pointed south.