compass card

American  

noun

Navigation.

1. a circular card with magnets attached to its underside, the face divided on its rim into points of the compass, degrees clockwise from north, or both, and floating or suspended from a pivot so as to rotate freely.

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compass card British  

noun

1. a compass in the form of a card that rotates so that "0°" or "North" points to magnetic north

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Etymology

Origin of compass card

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

But they never look at the instrument board on a line run without seeing on the compass card a sharp reminder of a TWA deficiency: all its routes run east and west.

From Time Magazine Archive

I actually prefer trying to hold a number on its screen rather than trying to keep a compass card in alignment.

From Time Magazine Archive

The compass card consists of cut-out printed letters pasted upon a printed compass rose, and the fleur-de-lis at North is inked-in by hand.

From Early American Scientific Instruments and Their Makers by Bedini, Silvio A.

The float has mounted upon it a compass card much like that of the ordinary magnetic instrument, and the sailor reads it in precisely the same way.

From Marvels of Scientific Invention An Interesting Account in Non-technical Language of the Invention of Guns, Torpedoes, Submarine Mines, Up-to-date Smelting, Freezing, Colour Photography, and many other recent Discoveries of Science by Corbin, Thomas W.

Theodolite, about 1780, brass; horizontal circle 5 in., vertical circle 5 in., telescope 7-1/2 in., compass 3 in.; spirit level set into compass card; spirit level attached to telescope; fixed vertical circle; unsigned.

From Early American Scientific Instruments and Their Makers by Bedini, Silvio A.