German Bezard, possibly WW-II
posted by William Hudson at
7:50 AM
About
The Compass Collector is Bill Hudson. He has been slowly collecting old compasses for several years now, and has focused on military, survey, and scouting compasses.
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6 Comments:
Im a compass collerctor and I bought a Bezard Kompass in good state in Buenos Aires I live in Bogotá Colombia but I don´t find any information abouth it´s story.
Do you know abouth the holes in the sides and the side levers in the sides of the hingues.
By
FER, at 5:54 AM
I'm not sure which holes you are referring to, so I'll try to describe them all.
On each side of the outer case, just above the hinge, there is a slot. This is the sighting slot, and you shoot the bearing by looking through the two slots, and aligning the sight-line with the object of interest (where you are going, or what you are shooting at... it is a military compass after all... ). The design allows the user to take bearings on objects that are significantly above or below the level of the observer.
The keyhole shaped hole in the top of the cover on some examples is (I think) a mounting slot, allowing the compass to be hung from a screw on the side of a vehicle or wagon. I do not have any confirmation on this... it is just conjecture on my part.
On some models there are also notches by the hinge, sometimes on separate plates that can rotate out of the way. These are for using the compass with a ruler as when drawing a map. This essentially converts the compass into an alidade.
As far as the history of the design, it was created by Johann von Bézard, an Austrian Army Colonel (Interestingly, the name 'Bézard' is actually French, but the good Colonel was an officer in the Austrian Army.).
By
William Hudson, at 10:10 PM
Although reference is made to Austrian Army Colonel Johann Bezard as the initiator of the design of the Bezard compass, another "story" at http://know-future.blogspot.com/2005_01_01_know-future_archive.html indicates that there was a community of Bezard in the French region named for the family of Bezard. Phillipe and Henri who ran the Bezard company until their deaths in 1967 and 1969 and had an interesting history during WWII with their tenuous relationships with the Nazis. The community, Bezard, claims this article, was named for the family which opened the company of the same name in 1852. Can anyone reconcile the differences or similarities between the reference to Col. Johann Bezard and the brothers, Phillipe and Henri Bezard? Were they related OR, are these two "different" historical stories? Thank you.
By
Unknown, at 12:56 PM
The KnowFuture story is not considered credible. The 'Compass' entry on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compass calls it a 'hoax' (BTW, although this blog is linked at the bottom of that page, I have had nothing to do with that page's content).
The family name 'Bézard' is French, but the inventor was an Austrian... which is not surprising considering how close the two regions are. Also note the germanic 'von' prefix.
By
Unknown, at 2:20 PM
Bill, I certainly appreciate and value your knowledge and insight regarding the Bezard compasses. I own three of them and they're all different and fascinating. "General wisdom" (if there is such a thing) would indicate that these compasses were produced by an East German firm from the early 1950's until the early 1960's AND they had instruction sheets (as one of mine does) printed in English. Undoubtedly they were intented for an English speaking market. How can this be when at that time period East Germany was very Communist and we were in the throse of the Cold War? I thought that trade with Communist countries was prohibited during this time period. OR, am I looking at a time period earlier than that in which they might have been produced by Germany during WWII? If so, why are words still in English, i.e., "patent", "original", etc. Even "Direction"? One of the three Bezard's I own is liquid, the other two are not. I'm assuming the manufacturer at that time, Lufft, was a firm which acquired the original Bezard operations?
Thanks. You knowledge base is tremendous and I'm quite fascinated by the design, technology, mystery and origin of these compasses.
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