What C. G. Conn did during WW2

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JohnL
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by JohnL »

Saw this on board the SS Lane Victory (a WW2 era cargo ship) in San Pedro, CA.

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It's the compass binnacle at the emergency steering station (on top of the rear deckhouse). Conn also built compasses during the war.
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Digidog
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Joined: Dec 13, 2018

by Digidog »

This may explain why all my Conns have been so directional when playing! Who knew.

[Cool find, by the way!]
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ghmerrill
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by ghmerrill »

My first reaction to it was "That looks like a Cavendish apparatus!" :lol: :lol:
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JohnL
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by JohnL »

[quote="ghmerrill"]My first reaction to it was "That looks like a Cavendish apparatus!" :lol: :lol:[/quote]

The spheres are iron; they're used to adjust the compass to correct for the fact that it's smack in the middle of thousands of tons of steel.
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ghmerrill
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by ghmerrill »

So that's kind of Cavendish-y :? ... sort of ... You know: gravity, magnetism, ... :roll:

It's just that when I saw it, I had an immediate flashback to a very lengthy freshman physics lab episode.
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JohnL
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by JohnL »

[quote="ghmerrill"]So that's kind of Cavendish-y :? ... sort of ... You know: gravity, magnetism, ... :roll:[/quote]
Well, some of the equations are very similar; inverse square and all that.

Tangential to the current subject, but more music-oriented: one band I play in incorporates Heave Ho, My Lads, Heave Ho! (the official song of the US Merchant Marine) whenever we do our service salute medley. WW2-era merchant mariners are recognized as veterans by the US Government.
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robcat2075
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Joined: Sep 03, 2018

by robcat2075 »

I suppose Axis-territory instrument manufacturers got re-tooled for similar purposes.

Anyone know what they might have been making?
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JohnL
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Joined: Mar 23, 2018

by JohnL »

[quote="robcat2075"]I suppose Axis-territory instrument manufacturers got re-tooled for similar purposes.

Anyone know what they might have been making?[/quote]
I don't recall seeing anything on the subject. I expect some of them retooled for wartime production while others were shut down and their workforce dispersed to factories making war materiel.