what years was this an option???

old dinsmore compass
never seen one like this
anyone got any info????

 

those things were add ons as far back as i can remember.......ho far back is that...hell i forgot what i was trying to remember.....it was way back

 

just saw a compass for a 42 chevy on "livin the low life" go for 3500. not sure what kind.....

 

Compasses as auto accessories probably go back as far as the early Model T days.

That one of yours appears to be olive drab which would point to a military use.

 

The after market type like yours were somewhat popular in the late 40s and 50s. We made fun of them as kids. Around here the owner usually had a pocket protector and a vacuum gauge to get the optimum fuel economy when gas was 30 cents a gallon. The nerdy dads had them the cool dads did not.

My opinion of them has changed after all theses years because they remind me of my youth but I still could not get the courage to bolt one on my dash.

 

I guess they were one of the first GPS systems. My Dad had a late 40's Pontiac coupe and it had one right in the center of the dash.

 

Dinsmore is the compass that was in the GM licenced accessory book, there were tons of other compass makers but Dinsmore is the saught-after one. I also had a Dinsmore that I couldn't pin down a year on.

You might try posting this on Chevybombs.com Those guys seem to have all of the accessory books and could probably tell you when they were availible. That's a relatively valueable piece.