How many murders are commited in the UK daily? Why is exactly this one called a terrorist attack just because someone has yelled Allah Akbar?

1/. On average, maybe one, so no chance of you feeling superior over that one.
2/. Because we have a rotten, lousy press/media organisation, who care more for the chance to make a sensation out of anything, rather than having any feeling of humanity toward the victim’s relatives. Far better (as far as they’re concerned) for a reporter (sorry, editor) to stand beside a bloodstain, rather than just do the report from an anonymous studio, and we have to endure the sight of grief-stricken relatives being put on display, even though we know that the supporters of those lunatics will be loving every minute of the parade. Add in the spectacle of our political leaders doing their famous headless chickens act, with all the wild talk of terrorist atrocities, and the whole sick charade is complete.

The lever is designed to lock the bowl, once the course has been set, to stop it vibrating, and turning. The alcohol is a damping fluid, to stop oscillations damaging the sapphire “jewel” set in the jewel post (difficult to see, since it’s partially hidden by the central mushroom of the “spider.”) Without the fluid, the pivot (screwed into the “spider”) can bounce up and down, scoring or chipping the sapphire, with consequent misreadings.
Post-war, many compasses were modified, so that the “glowing” interiors were replaced by items filled with a powder which needs fluorescent light to make them react, which makes them completely non-hazardous, but only a check with “flu” lamps and a geiger counter can be certain.
The main danger is in the grid ring, since the crosswires, and certain cardinal points, were normally painted with radioactive material, and were rarely (if ever) modified to the new standards. With the passing of years, the paint turns to dust, and drops onto the bowl’s glass, giving you the opportunity to breathe it in should you ever remove the ring. What the “hot” paint can do to your lungs I’ll leave to your imagination.
There are only two points of likely leakage, should you feel like refilling the compass. The main (bevelled) glass normally has a rubber seal between it and its brass retaining ring, which can be made from 1/8″ diameter rubber (and is a nightmare to replace accurately,) or a sticky two-part adhesive, which is a gooey mess to remove (and even more gooey to replace.) The filling point is on the side of the bowl, and only accessible by removing it, and the grid ring, from the base; the plug should have a fibre washer fitted onto it,which is normally de-aerated (as is the alcohol) before final filling. On the bottom of the bowl is a set of bellows, which are normally retracted slightly, while filling, to allow for any temperature (or height) induced contraction/expansion of the fluid. If you’re not planning on flying your compass, that’s something you can safely ignore.
If you do refill the compass, and the “spider” does not appear to be level, this is quite normal, since it has an inbuilt “angle of dip,” which varies according to your position on the earth’s surface; it is normally only level at the equator.
Post-war compasses were normally painted in Dark Admiralty Grey, or Light Admiralty Grey (not far removed from cockpit green,) and came under the control of the Admiralty Compass Observatory, Slough (now closed down.)

Edgar, The one with the stain on was caused by Blue2 Graham, either him or Scott, not me at all.

The perpetrator of the stain is immaterial; it’s the abiding memory of the reason for its appearance, even after a deep steam-clean, which is the problem.

I heard a whisper they are planning to “Dress up” at the next open day at Elvington, make sure you take your camera

Unfortunately, for my next visit to the National Archive, at Kew, I need an operable device, not one with a shapeless mass of molten glass where the lens used to be.

Thanks for the reminder Edgar, O.K. if I bring those two of yours I borrowed for that Bash last Weekend, to you on Sunday?

Fair enough, but can you ensure they’re stain-free, this time, please?

Especially the ones with a penchant for minis…

What a man wears, in the privacy of his own home, is no concern of anyone else.

Just look at the dregs we have already let in.
I’m not against letting people live here just concerned that every foreign endevour we get involved in ultimately fails and then as a country we are burdened with the people from that country. The good, the bad, the indifferent, the terrorists, criminals.

The Gurkhas, the Australians, the Indians, the French, the Belgians, the Dutch, the Norwegians, the Falkland Islanders et al; of course we should have left them to the ministrations of Hitler, Tojo and Galtieri. What were we thinking of?

The heart is protected by the rib cage, so a bullet can easily be deflected into a non-lethal area. This, of course, will bring a demand for bullets that can’t be deflected, which then gives the possibility of it going straight through, and hitting the innocent member of the public, standing behind.
In all this emotive talk about muslims, I was sent a very good piece, which originated in Germany. In it the author says that Hitler only succeeded because the good Germans sat back and did nothing, and there are any numbers of historical events with exactly the same result. The only people who can stop the extremists are members of the same religion, who must make it end; we, being seen as the enemy, can’t do it, so will continue to die, unless, and until, the genuine followers of Islam finally put the murderers where they belong, and stop mouthing meaningless “condemnations.”

Yes, why don’t we just use them, then abandon them to their fate, after all we have a good record of doing that, even with our own forces. Why, if we leave them in their own country, we won’t even have the expense of their funerals to worry about.
Truly, at times, I wonder at the utter callousness of some people.