Just got my MkIII Compass back from Trademark London

[Lithy]

Hi Lithy - nice examples. I'm beginning to lean towards early MkIII = no guard, late MkIII - guard.

Do both of yours retain the fluid inside?

I topped them both up a couple of years ago and as you can see from the pic the one on the right has a bubble in it already.

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[Son]

I topped them both up a couple of years ago and as you can see from the pic the one on the right has a bubble in it already.

Yeah, mine is bubbled too... I 'spose it's out of warranty now too- bugger!

Thanks for the offer of a session on these, Peter. Looking forward to it.
I have a few bits laying around if anyone in Aus need some.

[Surpmil]

I was wondering just the other day why some of these were made in mils and some in degrees circa WWII. Artillery use in mils?

Damn good thread by the way!

[Peter Laidler]

Some/most British Army Mk3 compassed were upgraded to Mils but might look for all purposes like old 'as made' Mk3's. Some of the oldies still have radium but they're few and far between now but they all have the little trefoil on them and Ra133 for radium and T for tritium. Talking of mils, some of our Binos, prismatic No2 Mk3's are now graduated in mils instead of degrees.

As I mentioned somewhere else, the oldest EMER I can see dates to 1955 or so (sorry if I said 1952.......) and makes no mention of a guardless variant. Maybe we sold the guardless cheapo variant to you wild colonials of savage Antipodeans...........

[Claven2]

Some/most British Army Mk3 compassed were upgraded to Mils but might look for all purposes like old 'as made' Mk3's. Some of the oldies still have radium but they're few and far between now but they all have the little trefoil on them and Ra133 for radium and T for tritium. Talking of mils, some of our Binos, prismatic No2 Mk3's are now graduated in mils instead of degrees.

As I mentioned somewhere else, the oldest EMER I can see dates to 1955 or so (sorry if I said 1952.......) and makes no mention of a guardless variant. Maybe we sold the guardless cheapo variant to you wild colonials of savage Antipodeans...........

Interesting. When you pull your two compasses - would it be possible to try to get two earlier MkIII's (from what's available) and try to have one with radium and one where the lights have been upgraded by removing the radium and substituting Tritium? The early MkIII's are interesting in that the backlight cup was designed for the radium paint and it would be great to see how MoD officially converted these.

As for the Canadian Army, in WW2, F-B allowed Canadian Kodak Company to produce them during wartime only (a patent issue) so we (Canadians) marked into Europe with domestically produced MkIII prismatics, though I know some Kodak's ended up in UK stores and some FB's in Canadian stores. An interesting fact is that regardless of maker markings on Brit compasses, all parts were made by Francis Barker and the maker refers to the ASSEMBLER. The "B" prefix on brit made compasses stands for "Barker" to show they made the components.

I've never seen a non-upgraded Kodak with a guard. I did see one, but it was a Canadian issue compass upgraded to mils so the guard was a retrofit in all likelihood. All Brit compasses I have ever seen with guards that are still in degrees were made after 1943. I know this isn;t definitive based on the small sample size, but a LOT of pre-1943 MkIII's have no guards on them from the photos I've been googling and the examples I've personally handled.

[Mk VII]

All British fire control instruments (as far as I know) were made in degrees at this time. The NATO interoperability agreements caused us to abandon or update them.

[Peter Laidler]

A bubble makes them useless. It's better to have it empty than bubbled. I'll explain the ins and outs of de-gassing when I do the whatsit article. Bear with me. I've got to get a couple to write off first

[Peter Laidler]

As a matter of interest Son, do you have an RAEME Instrument shop there? Are you still using these prismatics? We had them in Aust. Malaya and SVn as I recall

[Son]

As a matter of interest Son, do you have an RAEME Instrument shop there? Are you still using these prismatics? We had them in Aust. Malaya and SVn as I recall

No instrument shop here, Peter. Yes, they still use the prismatic compasses, but all repairs are done in Sydney. I'm sure they used to do them here, but I don't know how far back that was.

[Claven2]

You know, what amazes me is just how good the quality os on the Commonwealth prismatic compass. It really is quite a good piece of kit and there are just so few commercial compasses that can compare to a MkIII or an M73 compass. Anyone know of any other really good compasses out there? Liquid damped, jewelled pivots, illuminated with tritium, solid machined brass body construction, etc.?