Introduction

Experience the great nautical discovery of Cardan Suspension and enjoy the beautiful and detailed engraving of our dry compass.

General information

• size: diameter 10 cm, height 6 cm,
• designed in brass and wood
• compass is fully functional

Additional information

As you probably know, ships have a strong tendency to pitch and roll. It's not much fun - in fact it's pretty annoying.  Cardan suspension provides a solution to this problem.

The Cardan suspension allows the rotation of an object in multiple dimensions. Usually it is made up of a series of rings (two rings on this instrument), one inside the other. Rings are mounted on two or threee axis (depending on the instrument) in a way which enables them to twist and turn freely.

A three-axis Cardan suspension allows an object mounted on it to remain in a horizontal plane, regardless of the motion of its support.  A ship's magnetic compass mounted in this way was free of disturbance by waves.

Cardan suspension appeared in Europe as early as the ninth century AD but  the earliest textual reference to this kind of suspension has been found is in a poem called Ode on Beautiful Women, composed about 140 BC. More than three centuries later, about 189 AD, the clever mechanic Ding Huan was given credit for inventing gimbals a second time.

Geronimo Cardano