Further Info On The Jerusalem Compass

I just got an email advertising an interesting product - the Jerusalem compass. Always points towards Yerushalayim from wherever you are in the world. Very cool. Check it out.

Defies Nature! Just Open The Cover and Find Your Way Home!
NEW Patented Technology! An amazing, attractive, compass that defies nature as it spins… and stops in the direction of our prayers and dreams… Jerusalem! Now you will always know the correct direction of your aspirations and prayers - anywhere in the world. Recommended by leading Rabbi's. SPECIAL OFFER, Ships with free Western Wall Images CD for orders before Chanukah 2005. (Can also be Personally Engraved...Click Details)

Though they spelled "Rabbis" wrong.

Important Update: According to blogger Observant Astronomer, this device likely works from only one location. That is, if you are in New York, it is rigged so that it faces East, or whatever exactly will point to Jerusalem. If you were in Russia, it would be similarly rigged. But you cannot take your compass to Russia and expect it to work. Thus, the advertising that "Now you will always know the correct direction of your aspirations and prayers - anywhere in the world" is quite misleading, and I do not know if it is worth the $25. Though from the detailed description, it seems that what was intended is that this is a product available for use by anyone in the world - and they will rig it appropriately for you, such that in your country, it will face Jerusalem. Thus, it perhaps was not at an attempt to mislead but to sell to a wider audience.

To cite his post:

I have located what is apparently the patent application in question. The inventor is indeed Moshe, but he now apparently lives in New Jersey. It is listed as a "Novelty Item". As one of the anonymous commentators speculated, it is indeed a standard compass with the magnetized needle hidden and another, non-magnetized, needle suspended above it set to point east. At point 14 it points out that similar devices could be made for other locations ". For example, a compass indicating South can be marketed in Finland and Russia," etc. At point 16, it is designed to "appear to defy the laws of physics" by minimizing the space for the magnetized needle.

So, it will only work from one location. It does not point any more accurately to Jerusalem than any other compass. It just saves you having to turn 90 degrees. It is indeed incredible. Literally, too good to be true. Further commentary is left to the reader.

I will try contacting them for clarification.
Important Update: Published exchanges of correspondence over at the Observant Astronomer seem to show that in fact this is not just for one place, but will work all over the world, and that the device is patent pending, and that the patent in question is not the same. If the device works as advertised, it may well be a great Chanukka gift!

I had my own email correspondence with the distributor or publisher, as promised. I wrote them as follows:

I received your email about this device, which seems nice, and put a post on
my blog to let others know about it.

http://parsha.blogspot.com/2005/11/jerusalem-compass.html

Then I saw on some other blogs that the device would seem to work from only
one location, such that if someone took it on a trip from New York to
Moscow, it would not function correctly in Moscow. If so, your ad copy is
misleading, and you are going to have some quite unhappy customers. I think
you meant that this is product that will work for whoever purchases it, in
his hometown, but the ad copy was unintentially misleading. Can you confirm
the details? Also, perhaps you can update the description to make this
clearer. (and also to change the typo "Rabbi's" to "Rabbis."

All the best,
Josh Waxman

They responded, but I did not get permission to publish their letter, so will not publish it here. Basically, they said that there are other blogs that wrote the product up in a misleading way, and to make sure to get the description directly from them. I am not sure which blogs they mean here. It could mean my initial description, or it could mean Observant Astronomers. Especially since their description can be taken in one of two ways, as I noted when being dan lekaf zechut above - that they meant that it can be configured from anywhere in the world. They cannot tell further details about how this works, since it is patent pending. But presumably this means that you can go from New York to Moscow and it would still work. I wonder if it would need some simple reconfiguring, though.

If you look at the image they provide, you will note that besides Jerusalem, there are numbers about the compass (0 to 340, as 360 = 0). There is also a knob on the side. It would seem that this would be for the purpose of configuration. Perhaps based on your country, there is a booklet which gives a number, based on latitude or longitude/latitude, which provides the proper offset for that other magnet, so that you actually point towards Jerusalem.

Just a guess.

It certainly cannot use GPS because it is non-electronic.

They said that is has a 30 day money-back guarantee. It may well indeed be a great Chanukka gift - though you might want to contact the distributor yourself, to make sure you know what you are getting.