The inventor
Engineer and inventor Johan Henrik L'Abée Lund was the electrical engineer who took over one of the capital's early leading electrical engineering workshops in 1909. The company then had 70 employees, and was specialized in fire detection systems, but also a number of electrical instruments and measuring devices.
L'Abée Lund was also an active inventor in several fields, including early telegraphic transmission of moving images. Later, he also made a name for himself with inventions such as ski bindings and other items for the leisure and outdoor market. This also included the clock compass, which he patented in 1914.
The original clock compass from 1920 was made of brass.
– Photo: Håkon Bergseth
Breakthrough success
Unlike many of his other registered patents, which never became a product, the clock compass was put into production by instrument maker Krogh in Oslo, and actively marketed from 1920 as an ingenious aid for hiking.
It functioned as both a solid and simple compass, and at the same time had its own built-in dial that allowed the compass to be used as a sundial. When the compass's direction arrow was pointed at the sun, the compass needle cast a shadow on the dial's time scale, thus showing the time. Such combinations were not new, but here the solution was made in a handy pocket format adapted for hiking.
The clock compass received much praise when it was launched in 1920, and follow-up marketing and a relatively low retail price made it a sales success from the start. Before Easter 1921, a new sales campaign was organized by the inventor with advertisements throughout the country.
Brochure for the clock compass from 1920.
– Image: The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology
Advertising crisis
Unfortunately, Easter also brought an accident for a hiking group. In dense fog, two skiers got lost on their way from Geilo to Geiteryggen. They missed a cabin by a few hundred meters. One skier collapsed from exhaustion, and the other ran for help. By the time he returned, however, his hiking companion had frozen to death.
These were two young engineers who were used to the mountains and worked at a power plant in Western Norway. In the explanation of the tragedy, a possible fault with the compass was pointed out as a cause. This gave bad PR for the compass, and it didn't get any better when the inventor took the stand and instead blamed the users.
1. After the clock compass, L'Abée-Lund patented a compass that would correct for misdirection in a simple way. This prototype from the 1930s was made in Switzerland from a modern plastic material.
– Photo: Håkon Bergseth
2. L'Abée-Lund was interested in early plastic materials, such as this transparent plexiglass produced as early as the 1930s.
– Photo: Håkon Bergseth
L'Abée Lund nevertheless had to admit weaknesses in the design, and continued to develop the compass. In the late 1930s, he was an early adopter of new plastic materials, including transparent plexiglass, in the design. However, the compasses did not achieve any further sales success.
