T. Cooke & Sons Ltd 'RGS' Singer's compass, dating from c.1900. Signed on the rear of the brass case by 'T. Cooke & Son Ltd, London, York, & Cape Town'. This is a very high quality compass, with a mother of pearl card, jewelled pivot, transit lock, brass case, and a fitted leather outer case. The brass case has a 'bronzed' finish - which remains in excellent condition. The compass card is hand painted and is the 'RGS' variant of the classic Singer's design. The Singer's compass was particularly suitable for night marching use due to its high contrast dial, and was very popular with late 19th and early 20th century military officers and explorers.
This type of compass card design was first described and illustrated in the 1871 edition of the Royal Geographical Society expedition handbook Hints to Travellers, and also appeared in the 1876 edition. It became known as the 'RGS' type, with the design being attributed to Francis Barker & Son, who registered it in 1903. In the Barker catalogue for 1907 this design was described as the ‘R.G.S. Dial’, even though it was never officially endorsed by the Royal Geographical Society. Barker compasses were often supplied unsigned by the maker to prominent scientific instrument retailers, including T. Cooke & Sons, Cary, J. H. Steward and Negretti & Zambra. These retailers in turn supplied compasses and other instruments to the British armed forces and to Victorian and Edwardian explorers, including Ernest Shackleton and his team for the celebrated 1907-1909 British Antarctic Expedition.
Further details of the 'RGS' compass can be found in Trade Mark London by Paul Crespel, available to view as a PDF at trademarklondon.com. It is also featured in Compass Chronicles (Schiffer, 2010) by Kornelia Takacs.
T. Cooke & Sons: were an English instrument-making firm, founded in York in 1837 by Thomas Cooke (1807-1868), who leased a shop at 50 Stonegate, near York Minster. Cooke's workshop was at the rear of the shop, where he made and repaired scientific instruments. Cooke became one of the first makers of refracting telescopes in Britain. A notable instrument made at this time was a 4.5 inch equatorial refracting telescope, with Cooke making the whole instrument including the optical elements at a time when most instrument makers specialised in making either the optical or mechanical components. In 1855 Cooke exhibited at the Exposition Universelle in Paris and won a First Class Medal for a 7.5 inch equatorial refractor. By 1855 Thomas Cooke had built a factory at Bishophill in York.
In 1864 Cooke undertook his first order for surveying equipment when he built 16 theodolites to be sent to India. By 1870 The Survey of India was using Cooke levels for the primary survey in preference to Troughton & Simms products as they considered them to be superior. Following the death of Thomas Cooke in 1868, the business was continued by his sons, trading as T. Cooke & Sons, ‘Astronomical and Mathematical Instrument Manufacturers, Turret Clock Makers, and Machinists’, with factories at the Buckingham Works in York, and in Southampton Street, the Strand, London. In 1897 the company became T. Cooke & Sons Ltd.
The firm built the clock face on the Darlington clock tower, provided a 12 inch theodolite for the construction of the Forth Railway Bridge, and made six lightweight theodolites for Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova Antarctic Expedition of 1910-1913. Before the outbreak of WW1 the company worked on the Pollen system for improving the accuracy of naval gunnery, supplying the optical components for the system. In 1914, a new factory was built in Bishophill, and in 1915 Vickers acquired a controlling stake in the company. During WW1 Cooke worked on contracts for large naval rangefinders from the main contractor, Barr & Stroud. In 1922 Vickers merged the company with Troughton & Simms to form Cooke, Troughton & Simms.
Samuel Berry Singer (1796 - c.1875) was a master mariner from Southampton. He patented his unique design in June 1861, although he had been working on it since 1853. Its high contrast compass card was intended to be much easier to read in low light than conventional compasses of the time, and was considered to be a significant innovation. It was tested for night use by Trinity House and the Royal Navy. David Livingstone, the celebrated Victorian explorer, used one of Singer's compasses and provided a testimonial in the Negretti & Zambra catalogue for 1864. The administration and licensing of Singer's design and the allocation of the patent serial numbers was handled by Negretti & Zambra. Although his compass was widely adopted by British scientific instrument makers during the second half of the 19th century, Singer himself did not benefit greatly from his invention. The patent lapsed in 1868 when he was unable to pay the stamp duty required for its renewal, and he ended his days living in poverty in Kincardine on the Firth of Forth. C. T. S. Birch Reynardson described meeting Samuel Singer in his book Sports and Anecdotes of Bygone Days (1887): 'He was the inventor of the compass called "Singer's Compass", which is used in the navy and by almost all nautical men. From being partly made on the face of mother of pearl, it shines in the dark; and when no other compass can be read Singer's can be seen distinctly. He took out a patent for it, and he was to have made his fortune by it; but, alas! For poor old Singer, those that got hold of his invention promised everything and performed nothing. It is often the case that an honest man finds brains, and that dishonest men make use of them; so it was in this case. The poor old fellow, from trusting too much to their sense of righteous dealings, was fair swindled out of his invention. The poor old man was all but mad upon the subject. And I never met him but he would spin me a yarn about the injustice he had received'. After describing a near fatal accident he had experienced, Singer told Birch Reynardson it was 'Not half as bad as the trick those fellows played me about my compass'.
Versions of Singer's iconic design continued to be made until after the First World War. Further details of the history of the Singer's Patent compass can be found at compasscollector.com, and in Compass Chronicles by Kornelia Takacs (Schiffer, 2010).
Condition:
In excellent condition and full working order. The compass finds North well and the transit lock is working. The compass card and glass are in very good condition. The brass case is in very good condition, with the original bronzed finish almost completely intact. The leather case is in very good condition.
Dimensions: 55mm diameter (80mm including loop)
