I have a smallish, liquid filled compass that I am very fond of. I have others too that work fine, but I want to see if I can get this one working as well. It belonged to my father.
The problem is that is is rather unsure where North is. I swings around, looks this way and that, and if you give it some time it will usually settle in the end but it never seems terribly confident about it. Is there some way I can strengthen its pointing powers? The only thing that occurs to me is to try using another magnet on it (would have to be through the glass, it is sealed) but I am worried that might confuse it even more than it is.
Any suggestions? Any experts on compass revitalisation?
> magnetise a needle by rubbing a magnet against it
I don't think a reference is the problem...
"I have others too that work fine"...
If it's already b*ggered, then trying to remagnetise can hardly be a loss, can it?
I'd hold the compass vertically, so it can't swing so easily, and then 'stroke' the needle with a magnet. You may end up with a compass that points S, though...
If no world-renowned compass expert turns up in the next day or so, I will try that I think, and see what happens. I can try it with a needle first to make sure I am stroking it in the right direction..
You could try asking a schoolchild - I remember some sort of trick involving wrapping copper wire round a metal rod and passing a current through the coil to make a magnet. Or was it passing a metal rod through a copper coil to make a current? Loooong time since I took a physics lesson!
> You could try asking a schoolchild - I remember some sort of trick involving wrapping copper wire round a metal rod and passing a current through the coil to make a magnet.
I understand and sympathize with your feelings about your father's compass. I feel the same about my father's collection of OS maps, printed on linen, dating from the 1920s.
But look at it this way; would your father want you to put yourself at risk by using his old and unreliable compass? Buy yourself a new one, put his away in a drawer and take it out from time to time to remind yourself of him and what he meant to you.
OK. In the end I waved a magnet at the compass, and lo and behold, one end of it violently repels the needle, and the other attracts it. So I brushed the end-that-attracted against the N end of the compass needle a few times, as best I could through the glass.
The result is very satisfactory.. the needle has regained all its old zest and eagerness to point north, so now all is well..
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