STANLEY COMPASS

[Steve Thompson]

Ihave just been given a old Stanley compass [brass]It has engraving on the top which says NATURAL SINE
STANLEY LONDON
Could any one explain all the numbers / degrees on the lid
Thanks Steve

[MidLandOne]

It will be a sine compass and the numbers and degrees on the lid will be a table of sines (as used in trigonometry).

These compasses used to be used in surveying and related things such as tunneling and mining. The table of sines was used by the surveyor.

[Exocet]

And thank the survey God for giving us the electronic calculator, because it was a real BEEEACH carrying around that log book and a slide rule.