Singers Patent GB1861, 11th June 1861
Singers Patent is significant in the history of the compass because it addresses the ease of use of reading the compass card as opposed to the compass construction. The principles of it’s design were so influential that they lasted over fifty years until the First World War.
Singer’s Patent is attributable to Samuel Berry Singer.
Little is know about Samuel Berry Singer. He was born in 1796, married in Portsea, England 1843 at which time he was a Mariner. By the time he registered his patent in 1861 he was living in Southsea, England and was a Master Mariner, aged 65. An article in the Times of October 1861[1] refers to the fact that Samuel invented his design some eight years earlier, primarily it seems, for use whilst hunting. It must be appreciated that the issues faced by compass designers of the day were significant. In 1861 there was no luminous paint so to read the compass in the dark was difficult, especially if you did not want to attract attention to your location, either because you were stalking some prey or were involved in a military manoeuvre where you could alert the enemy to your position. It seems reasonable to assume that Samuel Berry Singer approached these problems primarily as a serious user of the compass, and not as is often the case, as an instrument maker or manufacturer. This explains why his patent [2] solely addresses the issues of the compass rose design and in my view explains why the design has enjoyed such longevity. It is a users solution to a very practical design issue and as such can be considered an iconic design of its time.
Singers’s design was trialled by both Trinity House and the Royal Navy for use at night, however little has been found out about these trials to date. The importance of these trials needs to be put in context. Compass technology was evolving rapidly at this time as more and more ships were made of iron and steel. At this time, the illumination of the compass card at night was frequently by candle or oil lamp and in rough weather this was not only unreliable, but also dangerous due to the fire risk. So, imagine, given the importance of marine shipping at the time, anything that addressed the issues of reading the compass in the dark or poor light and improving safety of life at sea, would be viewed as an important breakthrough.
These are the designs as registered by Samuel Berry Singer in his patent that was filed on 11th June 1861. It can be seen that the original designs did not include the Lyre design or the words Singers Patent seen in all early examples of the Singers Patent card. The second design is far less common, probably because the design would have been hand drawn and therefore more time consuming to produce. The patent was registered in the UK (GB1496, 11 June 1861) and later in France (2460, 31 December 1861) [3]. The French version had the same design but the compass rose was marked in French and the less common compass card had additional marks at the SW and SE positions.
My own view is that compass roses were created in batches by a compass maker, then the number added when a compass was sold. The number would have been purchased from Negretti & Zambra. The main design features were evident as early as November 1861 in an article from The Illustrated London News [4] where the star, the Lyre and the words Singers Patent are included. Latter examples, such as those during WWI only included the star and the Lyre, presumably because the patent had expired and manufacturers were reusing the basic elements of the design.
There are sales references in the Negretti & Zambra catalogue of 1864 to the compass design which include a testimonial from Dr David Livingston, the explorer.
In this example of a Singer’s Patent compass we can see that the star at the North cardinal is present but we can also see a Lyre, the words Singer’s Patent and a hand written number below the jewelled cap. The number was a means of licensing the cards made under Singers 1861 patent. The numbers that have so far been tracked down mostly in private collections range between #14 to #26020. I date any numbered Singers Patent compass between 1861 and 1868. If it does not have number then I refer to it as a “Singers Patent style compass”. You can find compasses with the words Singers Patent but no number, in my view these were fitted with cards that were made before the patent expired but after the expiry date. This is supported by the fact that the same compasses can be found with and without numbers.
The issuing of the numbers was done by done by Negretti & Zambra on Singers behalf. Negretti & Zambra marketed the compass and promoted to likes of Sir George Airy of The Royal Greenwich Observatory. As a result it appears in all of their catalogues for many years after the patent expired.
The inclusion of the Lyre is much more interesting and I assume that it was introduced as some sort of trade mark, since it was not in the original design. Thanks to the efforts of James of the Compass Crew, we are now of the view that the significance of the Lyre design has its origins in the use of bright stars for navigation. Vega (or Lyra) is known as the “Harp Star” and Mariners consider Vega the “Lucky Star”. During the mid to late 1800’s there were about 30 Navigation Stars and 7 of those were Primary stars. Vega is one of the Primary Navigation Stars. This is the symbolism used on the Singer’s Patent design that persisted until WWI.
Singers Design Legacy!
What happened to Samuel Berry Singer is revealed in Compass Chronicles [5] and it’s quite clear that he did not make his fortune from his compass. Patents in 1861 lasted 14 years, were expensive to register, even by modern standards, and stamp duty was due in the seventh year. His original Patent was only valid for seven years until 1868 when the stamp duty was not paid for the renewal of the patent. This meant the patent lapsed in 1868. Samuel Berry Singers design was enduring, widely copied and since over 26000 were numbered can considered to be a success story.
Putting a date to your Singers Patent compass is more difficult. I know that all the Negretti & Zambra records were destroyed in the 1960’s when they finally closed the business. Of the 108 Singers Patents I am aware of only one has a date on it that can be relied on, it has a silver hallmarked case for 1864 and is numbered 7272, but I have no idea when in the year, so I have opted for the end of the year. We know that No 1 would have been at the start of the patent in 1861 and the last one I have traced is 26020 would have been issued near when the patent expired in 1868. So after a slow start of on average 2424 per year till 1864, the average is 4687 per year for the remaining 4 years. The following graph illustrates what may have been the numbers licensed each year whilst the patent was in force. It at least gives the opportunity to date a Singers Patent compass.
Based on above estimated Singers Patent Numbers by Year are
Year 1 1~1600
Year 2 1601~4000
Year 3 4001~7272
Year 4 7273~11000
Year 5 11001~15500
Year 6 15501~20500
Year 7 20501~26020
Appreciate the simplicity of this design and you will understand why it was still in regular use in the early part of World War I as illustrated in this picture of a 1916 Mark V compass.
In general 1916/17 marks the end of Singer’s Patent influence on compass card design, however occasionally you will find compasses, as late as the 1960’s where the basic design has been copied in some form. His iconic design was even incorporated into a Victorian broach.
My opinion is that the design was displaced slowly over a period of a few years from about 1906 to 1916 by the introduction of Radium paint that allowed compass cards to be read in the dark. Radium was an incredibly widely used compound during this period and used for such a wide range of applications from instruments to medical compounds.
[1] The Times Saturday 5th October 1861 Page 12, Military and Naval Intelligence.
[2] GB Patent 1496, 11th June 1861.
[3] French Patent 31 December 1861.
[4] The Illustrated London News, No 1119 Vol XXXIX, Saturday November 30 1861, Page 553, Singer’s Night Compass.
[5] Compass Chronicles, Kornelia Takacs, ISBN : 978-0-7643-3396-5, May 2010
Acknowledgements
There are many people who deserve a mention in this article, since without their assistance and diligence I doubt I would have got this far. I would like to particularly thank Melvyn Rees at the Patent Office for locating Singers Patent, Adam Perkins at Cambridge University for making manuscripts of the late Sir George Airy of The Royal Greenwich Observatory available to me, Peter O’Reilly at the British Library for pointing me in the right direction and finally the other members of the Compass Crew (Alan, James and Kornelia) – without their assistance I would certainly have been unable to write these findings today.