Path-Pilot Compass ©

 

 

A Path-Pilot compass and the Compass Handbook and Map Encyclopedia, by DuPage.  Photograph by the Author.

Recently I was doing some research on the World War Two Era, United States Air Force, Emergency Sustenance Vest, Type C-1, when I found this in the instruction manual.

 

An excerpt from the “Instructions For The Use Of Emergency Sustenance Vest, Type C-1”, pages 4 and 5.

I remember thinking, “Wow, how cool!  A direct-reading compass, and it is a waterproof matchbox, with a flint strip on the side to scrape sparks with!  I have to get one of those!”

 

Unfortunately, they don’t make them anymore.  Oh, sure there is something like it, the “5-in-1 Survival Whistle”, but it doesn’t have a direct-reading compass built into it, just a regular dial compass.  Ughh!  How frustrating.

 

A “5-in-1 Survival Whistle”, which can be found HERE.

“So”, you ask, “BandanaMan, why are you so excited about a direct-reading compass”?  Well first let’s talk a little bit about compasses.

 

 

An excerpt from the Compass Handbook and Map Encyclopedia, by DuPage, page 11.

There are two types of compasses, the needle compass, where the magnetized needle swings above the dial, and the dial or card type of compass, where the needle is attached to the compass card and the entire dial swings and points towards north.  Often card compasses, and sometimes needle compasses, have a lubber line or “direction-of-travel-line” marked on them, and sometimes even sights.

 

An excerpt from the Compass Handbook and Map Encyclopedia, by DuPage, page 7.

Needle compasses can be difficult to use, as the dial is fixed, and often the “lubber line”¹ is simply an imaginary line passing through the north and south points of the dial. 

 

Using a needle compass, from the Compass Handbook and Map Encyclopedia, by DuPage, pages 12-13.

 

Another example of how to use a needle compass, from Better Ways Of Pathfinding, by Robert S. Owendoff, page 39.

A dial or card type of compass, like the Silva or lensatic style of compass, correctly shows the actual magnetic bearing under the front index, the point of the lubber line farthest away from the user’s eye, so that the traveler, as Robert S. Owendoff notes, “...avoids the confusion of taking a reading at another part of the dial as is necessary with all needle compasses”². 

 

How to use a card compass, from the Compass Handbook and Map Encyclopedia, by DuPage, page 13.

So, what you really want in a path-finding compass, is a dial compass with a lubber line, and possibly with sights, which allow you to directly read the bearings from the front index of the lubber line.  Most users with these types of compasses can learn to take an azimuth reading, when the compass is held at eye-level, within one to two degrees of accuracy, and when “shooting from the hip”, by holding the compass at waist level, with only slightly less accuracy.

 

The DuPage Path-Pilot direct-reading compass, from Boy’s Life, October 1946, page 49

Well, I managed to find an original DuPage Path-Pilot, direct reading compass and the instructional manual, which came with it!  This compass appears to have been built to the same specifications as those of the “Compass, Match Box”, which was illustrated in the “Instructions For The Use Of Emergency Sustenance Vest, Type C-1”.  If this particular compass wasn’t manufactured during World War Two, it was manufactured shortly thereafter. 

 

A DuPage Path-Pilot.  On the left note the vertical lubber line in the “YOU ARE LOOKING” window.  On the right note the sighting notches, connected by a lubber line, and just below that the north pointing arrow.  Photograph by the Author.

But how is the DuPage Path-Pilot compass different from dial or card type of compasses?  The only real difference is that instead of reading your bearings from under the front index point, while looking down on the compass, you read them from under the vertical lubber line while looking at the side of the compass match box.

 

How to use a DuPage Path-Pilot compass, from the Compass Handbook and Map Encyclopedia, by DuPage, page 13.

This compass was great to use, since I didn’t have to look back and forth from the landmark to the compass dial, as I would have with a Silva or lensatic compass, I simply held it up to my eye, sighted my landmark through the sight notches and read off or followed the bearing by walking towards my hand. 

 

How to use a DuPage Path-Pilot compass, and excerpt from the Compass Handbook and Map Encyclopedia, by DuPage, pages 34 and 35.

However, while the compass in my DuPage Path-Pilot still works, I don’t feel comfortable putting a museum piece into my survival kit.

 

A DuPage Path-Pilot, direct reading compass match box, in use.  Photograph by the Author.

So, since the only direct-reading compass match boxes are now museum pieces, which were last manufactured around 1950, how would you find something or modify something so that it is similar?

 

A “5-in-1 Survival Whistle”

Well, first buy a “5-in-1-Survival Whistle”, these can be found at just about any store selling outdoor gear, or HERE, or HERE.  Next with a hacksaw or razor blade, carefully etch or scratch a vertical lubber line on the side of compass container and saw twin sighting notches, directly in line with each other, on the top edge of the compass.  Next using luminescent paint, such as Glow-ON Green Color, Super Phosphorescent Gun Night Sights Paint, HERE, paint the sighting notches and the vertical lubber line, like in the picture below. 

 

A diagram of how to modify a 5-in-1 Survival Whistle, with sighting notches and a vertical lubber line etched into the plastic, and then painted with luminescent paint, showing a bearing of 60^o under the front index point.

You now have a compass match box that shows the actual magnetic bearing under the front index, the notch farthest away from the vertical lubber line and the user’s eye.  It isn’t exactly a DuPage Path-Pilot, but it is pretty close! 

 

And remember, when it comes to survival equipment, and in particular compasses, cheap doesn’t always equal good.  The DuPage Path-Pilot cost $1.95 in 1946, and as a comparison, in 2022 dollars, it would today cost about $29.68.  So, keep that in mind as you shop for your “5-in-1 Survival Whistle”.

 

For more on using compasses, read “There and Back Again...Finding Your Way©”, HERE.

 

And don’t forget to come back next week and read “Building a WWII Emergency Sustenance Vest, Type C-1, Part One©”, where we will talk about how to build an emergency survival vest, like the one that American pilots, wore during World War Two.

 

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

 

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

 

Notes

 

¹ A “lubber line” is a drawn or imaginary line on your compass, that points along the line of the bearing to the point that you plan on traveling to.

 

² From Better Ways Of Pathfinding, Robert S. Owendoff

 

Sources

 

Owendoff, Robert S.; Better Ways Of Pathfinding, [The Stackpole Company, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 1964], page 39

 

DuPage Plastics Company; Compass Handbook and Map Encyclopedia, Second Revised Edition, [1945, Chicago, IL]