Photo: Dustin Plunkett, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
William Austin Burt was born in Massachusetts in 1792. He was largely self-taught, and he built a career as a surveyor and inventor in Michigan.
In 1829 he patented a “typographer,” an early typewriter.
The solar compass
Burt’s best-known invention was the solar compass, patented in 1836. It used the sun’s position rather than a magnetic needle to find true north. That made it useful in places where iron in the ground threw off ordinary compasses.
September 1844
In September 1844 Burt was leading a federal survey crew near Teal Lake, close to what is now Negaunee. The crew noticed their magnetic compass needles swinging wildly. Burt told the men to look around for the cause, and they found outcrops of iron ore.
The discovery was the start of the Marquette Iron Range. Within a few years mines opened, and ore began moving to Lake Superior.
Later years
Burt served in the Michigan legislature and worked on plans for the Soo Locks. He died in 1858.
His solar compass stayed in use by surveyors for decades.
