Old School Chapter One: The Compass Rose

This week week marks a new occasional column theme for my postings on Americas Free Press/Canada Free Press. A dear friend and confidant suggested that there be some attention given to the old ways of doing things, in order to pass them along to the next generation. It’s a terrific idea, and here’s the first installment.

Upon our return from a journey to New England recently, it being the first day of Spring, I paused to check my setting for due east. My arrangement isn’t exactly a scientific instrument, but it gets the job done for me. The two stainless screws in the top of the white post are oriented toward the spot on my horizon where the sun peeps above the horizon on March 21^st and September 23^rd. On those two days in the northern hemisphere, the sun rises exactly in the east. As the earth orbits around the sun, from March 22^nd to September 22^nd the sun rises north of due east. From September 24 to March 20^th the sun rises south of due east. You can set your calendar by it. It’s uncanny.

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With your back to the wind, the low is to your left. A little weather info.

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Where the fun begins is visiting a town that does have a neat rectangular layout, but not oriented N/S, E/W. Tombstone, Arizona. I took a camera into town just after sunrise expecting the building shadows to be in a particular direction. They weren't. Later I read the original surveyor's report. The entire city is rotated 22 1/2 degrees clockwise (two 'points'), except for one building, the No. 1 Fire Station.

Years ago England was mapped at a scale 6 inches to 1 mile. The detail was incredible.

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