When was the first compass created

By Karen Harris

For ancient explorers, sailors, and navigators, knowing which way to go was a challenge. The very first sailors used the sun and the stars to help them find their way to their destination and back again but sometimes the sun and the stars aren’t visible. Clouds happen. Many a sea voyage was stymied because of cloudy weather. The magnetic compass changed all that…and it changed the world. But do you know who invented the compass? 

The Magnetic Compass was a “China’s Gift to the West”

The Chinese were the first to discover that naturally magnetized iron ore, also called lodestone, would, if uninhibited by gravity and friction, orient itself to point north. During China’s Han Dynasty, between 300 and 200 BC, compasses were made but, ironically, they were not used for navigation. They had a much more spiritual use. 

Compasses for Feng Shui and Fortune-Telling

The magnetic lodestone may have made it seem like it possessed magical properties. The early compasses created by the Chinese were used in fortune-telling by means of geomancy, the interpretation of lines and geographic alignments as symbols of the divine. The use of compasses was also an important tool for feng shui, the art of establishing harmony in a room or building by aligning various features to the different compass points. 

Chinese Compasses Looked Like Soup Spoons

The navigational compasses that emerged from China’s Song Dynasty of the 11th century had a unique design. The lodestone was fashioned into a shape that can best be described as a soup spoon or ladle. The lodestone spoon was placed in the center of a bronze disc and the magnetic properties made it spin around. When it stopped the handle part of the spoon was pointing to the south and the bowl part of the spoon would point north. These compasses were called ‘South Pointers’ or ‘South Governors’. The bronze disc would be inscribed with cardinal direction points, directional indicators for various constellations and other important symbols and information. 

Wet Compasses Helped Sailors and Navigators

A less cumbersome compass was then developed for navigational used, especially for sea voyages. It was discovered that it was possible to magnetize an iron needle by rubbing it against the naturally-magnetized lodestone. The thin, light needle could float on a piece of wood on the surface tension of a bowl of water where it could move freely. The magnetized needle would show the sailors which direction was north. 

Compasses Found Their Way to Europe in Medieval Times…But How?

By the 1300s, magnetic compasses were being used across Europe and the Middle East. Although some historians contend that the Europeans independently created magnetic compasses from iron ore several centuries after the Chinese, most believe that the Chinese introduced their compass to the Muslims, who then shared the knowledge with Europeans. Alexander Neckam’s work De Naturis Rerum, or On the Nature of Things, which was written in 1190, mentions that sailors from the East use magnetized needles to guide them, the first textual reference in Europe of the use of compasses. 

Trade Between East and West was Flourishing During This Time

It does seem more likely that Europeans and Middle Easterners learned how to use magnetized iron ore lodestones to make navigational compasses from the Chinese. This was the time of Marco Polo’s epic travels to China and the Far East via the Silk Road. It was also the time when Medieval Crusaders were making regular pilgrimages to the Holy Lands. In fact, over land travel between China, the Middle East and Europe was booming. But the compass helped make the journey faster by ocean travel. 

The Compass Enables Explorers to Conquer the Seas

With a compass in hand, European mariners were better equipped to sail away from the view of land and across the vast ocean. The compass is one of the under-appreciated contributing factors to the Age of Discovery, a time of worldwide exploration on the part of Europeans that occurred roughly between the 15th and 18th centuries. It was during this time that navigators and merchants charted sea routes to the Far East, to China, Japan and the Indonesian Islands and establish trade of silk, tea and spices. It was also the time when Spanish conquistadors were encountering the Aztec and Inca civilizations of Central and South America and when explorers were learning of the wondrous natural resources of North America. The increase in sea travel and trade routes, enabled by the compass, led to European settlements in the Americas. It is safe to say that the compass changed the world. 

Writer

Karen left the world of academic, quitting her job as a college professor to write full-time. She spends her days with her firefighter husband and four daughters on a hobby farm with an assortment of animals, including a goat named Atticus, a turkey named Gravy, and a chicken named Chickaletta.

Compass is a simple instrument that has a magnetic needle that can rotate freely in one plane and it points North-South when compass is in horizontal position. It is used for navigation and orientation.

We don’t know when precisely a compass is invented but we know that it was invented in China between the 2nd century BC and 1st century AD, during the Han Dynasty. In about that period, Chinese people found that lodestones, suspended so it could turn freely, would always point in the same direction. Loadstones, suspended in that way, were first used in geomancy, a type of earth magic, as a method of finding gems and selecting of sites for houses by the rules of geomantic principles of feng shui. First manmade compasses were so-called “south pointing spoons”, compasses where a lodestone needle was made in a form of spoon so it could turn on the smooth surface and whose “handle” pointed south. In the 12th century, China navy uses compasses for navigation but there is evidence that compasses were used by the Chinese military for navigational orienteering by 1040 during the Song Dynasty. There is some evidence that in 4th century, Chinese found that if iron is held and rubbed with a lodestone, it can receive properties of magnet and compasses were made from iron needles but first sure proofs appear in 11th century. Those compasses were intended for navigation and consisted of an iron needle that floated in the bowl of water which enabled needle to be in horizontal position.

How compass spread across the world is a matter for debate. Written evidence tells that compass appeared in Europe in 1190 and in the Muslim world later, in 1232 which is weird but there are no written proofs that would tell otherwise, at least for now.

Today there are many versions of compass which are used for navigation and orientation but in different conditions.

The First dry mariner's compass was invented in Europe around 1300. It has three major elements. The first one is freely pivoting needle which stands on a pin and is enclosed in a box that has a glass cover and a windrose that has cardinal directions - North, East, South and West. That box is placed inside a gimbal so it can rotate freely and that system in another gimbal. That way box that holds magnetic needle can always stay horizontal if weighted on the bottom.

A bearing compass is a magnetic compass that is used to measure bearing: the angle between its forward direction (the most commonly North), and the direction from it to some other object. It was used in map making and the first one appeared in 18th century. Its variants are surveyor's compass and prismatic compass.

The liquid compass is a type of a compass for navigation in which the magnetized needle or card is immersed in the fluid which gives more stable reading. It is a direct descendant of the first Chinese navigational compasses but they were improved in time and today’s variants are enclosed in transparent globes and used everywhere from boats to cars.