Clare County Inventions-A Better Surveying Instrument

A Better Surveying Instrument

In 1850 William Austin Burt had surveyed the section lines in Grant, Sheridan and Surrey Townships in Clare County and most likely used a solar compass which he invented and patented in the 1830’s.  The solar compass (a/k/a sun compass and/or astronomical compass) was particularly important when surveying in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan because the solar compass was not affected by the Upper Peninsula’s iron ore deposits as was the usual surveying compass.  Note that the Upper Peninsula’s iron ore deposits created a magnetic field which interfered with the common surveying compass in finding magnetic North.   Wm. A. Burt’s invention got around the problem.   See Meek, Michigan’s Timber Battleground (1976), pages 4 and 15 and Wikipedia.