Thursday, June 11, 2020

Sweden 1978 - North Arrow

For over 2,000 years humankind has been using the compass for navigation. The compass was invented in China during the Han Dynasty (20BC-20AD). This first compass utilised lodestone, a naturally magnetic stone containing iron. Later compasses used iron needles magnetised by rubbing it against lodestone.

A compass rose, also called a wind rose or rose of the winds, is a figure that adorns compasses, maps, nautical charts, and even occasionally monuments. This is used to display  the orientation of the cardinal directions (north, South, East, and west) and their intermediate points. These days we are used to seeing the cardinal directions represented by the letters N, NE, E, SE etc... But older compasses use the traditional Italianate wind names of Medieval origin (Tramontana, Greco, Levante, etc...).

There are several different variants of the compass rose. There is the 4-point compass rose, which uses the four basic 'winds' or cardinal directions, N, S, E, W. These markings are 90° apart. Then there is the 8-point compass rose, which adds four further 'winds' or cardinal direction, NE, SE, NW, SW, at 45° apart. More complex are the 12-point rose with markings at 30° apart, the 16-point rose with markings at 22.5° apart, and the 32-point rose with markings at the awkward 11.25° apart. 

The depiction of compass roses on nautical charts has evolved over time from very basic lines to incredibly intricate illustrations, found for instance, on 15th century Portuguese maps. Frequently, the points on a compass rose were labeled by the initial letters of the mariner's principal winds (T, G, L, S, O, L, P, M) as mentioned above. Over time it became a custom to distinguish north from the other points on the rose by making it more ornate. According to Wikipedia:

"Medieval Italian cartographers typically used a simple arrowhead or circumflex-hatted T (an allusion to the compass needle) to designate the north, while the Majorcan cartographic school typically used a stylized Pole Star for its north mark. The use of the fleur-de-lis as north mark was introduced by Pedro Reinel, and quickly became customary in compass roses (and is still often used today).

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On 5 September 1978 Sweden issued a stunning stamp featuring a compass rose from a 1769 map. It was engraved by Martin Mörck. The entire rose is very ornate, but check out that incredible north point!


Until next time...

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