Part II
Chap. I. He takes a round, or an ovoid magnet, and, after noting its poles, files it between the two poles on both sides so that it may be like a compressed sphere and thus occupy less space. He then encloses this magnet between two light wooden capsules, or boxes (cassulas) after the manner of a mirror ... so fastened (with glue) that they cannot be opened and water cannot enter. Then, says he, “place the capsules thus adjusted in a large vessel full of water in which the two quarters of the globe, viz. the South and the North, are found and marked, and let them be indicated by a thread extending from the Northern to the Southern part of the vessel; allow the capsules, or boxes, to float and let there be above them a slender piece of wood in the form (position) of a diameter. Then move this piece of wood above the boxes until it is equidistant from the meridianal line previously found and indicated by the thread, or is the same (line) itself. This being done, according to the piece of wood so situated, draw a line on the capsules, or boxes, and it will be the perpetual meridianal line in all countries. That line, therefore, when cut at right angles by another will be divided in the centre and will be the line of the East and West. You will thus have four quadrants actually marked on the capsules, or boxes, representing the four quarters of the globe, of which each will be divided into ninety, so that there may be in the universe CCCLX parts (degrees) in the entire circumference of the capsules, or boxes. Inscribe divisions on it as they were formerly inscribed on the back of the astrolabe. There should be, besides, a slender and light ruler above the capsules so inscribed after the manner of the ruler on the back of the astrolabe. Instead, however, of the sights (pinnularum), should be erected at right angles two pins over the ends of the ruler.”
This floating compass and the pivoted compass described in the following chapter are to be found illustrated, pp. 67–77, figs. 10 and 12, at end of Part II of Bertelli Barnabita’s Memoirs above referred to.
Chap. II. For the construction of a “better instrument and of more certain effects” (the pivoted compass) he says: “Let there be made a vessel of wood, brass or any other solid material that you desire, and let it be turned in the shape of a jar (pixidis tornatum) somewhat deep and tolerably large and let a cover of transparent material, such as glass or crystal, be fitted to it. If the whole vessel were of transparent substance so much the better. Let there be placed in the centre of the same vessel a slender axis of brass or silver, applying its extremities to the two parts of the jar, that is to say (to the) higher and lower. Let two holes be then made in the centre of the axis facing each other at right angles. Then let a piece of iron wire, like a needle, be passed through one of these holes and another wire of silver or brass be passed through the other, intersecting the iron at right angles. Let the cover at first be divided into quadrants and each of the quadrants into ninety parts, as was taught regarding the other instrument. Let North and South and East and West be marked on it and let a rule of transparent material be added to it with wires set upright at the ends. You will approach what part of the magnet you please, whether North or South, to the crystal until the needle moves towards it and receives virtue from it. When this is done, turn the vessel until one end (of the needle) stands directly over the North in the instrument coinciding with the Northern quarter of the sky. This being done, turn the rule to the sun, by day, and to the stars, by night, in manner above indicated. By means of this instrument, you will be enabled to direct your footsteps to states and islands and to any places on the globe, and wheresoever you may be, whether on land or on sea, so long as their latitudes and longitudes are known to you.”
Chap. III. He constructs “a wheel which shall be constantly in motion,” by making a very thin concave, silver case, after the manner of a mirror, suitably perforated, around the rim of which he inserts small iron nails, or teeth, bent closely toward each other and which he then places upon an immovable axis so that it may revolve easily.” He continues: “Let a silver wire be added to this axis, fixed to it and placed between two bowls on the end of which let a magnet be set, prepared in this manner. Let it be rounded and its poles ascertained, as before indicated; afterwards, let it be fashioned in the shape of an egg with the poles intact, and let it be somewhat filed down in two intermediate and opposite parts with the object of its being compressed and occupying less space so that it may not touch the inner walls ... let the magnet be placed on the wire ... and let the North pole be somewhat inclined towards the small teeth of the wheel so that it may exercise its power ... so that each tooth shall arrive at the North pole and, owing to the impetus of the wheel, shall pass it by and approach the Southern quarter. Thus every small tooth will be in a perpetual state of attraction and avoidance. And, in order that the wheel may perform its duty with greater rapidity, insert, between the cases, a small round brass or silver pebble of such size that it may be caught between any two of the small teeth, so that, as one part of the wheel comes uppermost, the pebble may fall to the opposite part. Wherefore, whilst the motion of the wheel is perpetual on one side, the same will be in the case of the pebble on the other side, or the fall of the pebble caught between any two of the teeth will be perpetual to the opposite side because as it is drawn towards the centre of the earth by its weight, it assists the motion by not suffering the small teeth to remain at rest in front of the stone. Let there be spaces, however, between the small teeth conveniently curved, so as to catch the pebble as it falls in the way the present description indicates.”
Petrus Peregrinus. Facsimile of a Ms. at the Bodleian Library, of the “Epistola de Magnete,” wherein is described the earliest known pivoted compass.
Gilbert alludes to this perpetual-motion engine as having been devised or delineated by Peregrinus after he had got the idea from others (“De Magnete,” Book II. chap. xxxv.), and says that Jerome Cardan writes (“Opera,” Batav., 1663; “De Rerum Varietate,” Book, IX. chap. xlviii.) he could construct one out of iron and loadstone—not that he ever saw such a machine; that he merely offers the idea as an opinion and quotes from a report of the physician Antonio de Fantis of Treviso published in “Tabula generalis ac mare magnum scotice subtilitatis....”
In the “Magisterium Naturæ et Artis,” P. Francisci Tertii de Lanis, Brixiæ, 1684, Tractatus Tertius, Caput Secundum, p. 489, under Problema, I, Motus perpetuus magnetis, will be found allusion to the machines of (1) P. Peregrinus, as described in his epistle; (2) Taisnier; (3) Ant. de Fantis (cited by Cardan, as stated above); also mention of those of P. Schottus, Athan. Kircherus, Hieronimus Finugius and others; the most important of these being again alluded to throughout the third chapter of the same tract.
Gilbert makes further allusion to P. Peregrinus in his Book I. chap. i.; Book II. chap. xxxv.; Book III. chap. i.; Book IV. chap. i.; Book VI. chap. iv.
The Peregrinus’ Leyden manuscript (Fol. Cod. No. 227) already alluded to, Libri says (“Histoire des Sciences Mathém....” 1838, Vol. I. p. 383, note), is but a poor copy of the manuscript in the Paris Library (No. 7378A), from which latter the words Petri ad Sygerum have been unfortunately transformed into Petri Adsigerii. He adds (Vol. II. pp. 70–71) that Humboldt cites (“Examen Critique,” p. 243) several authors who have alluded to the pretended Adsigerius. Mention is also made of the fact that W. Wenkebach, professor at the Hague Military School, examined the manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Nos. 1629, 1794 and 2458, containing the treatise of Peregrinus, and that not one of them has the passage alluding to the declination. The Leyden manuscript, by the way, is said to be the only one, besides the Vatican copy, No. 5733, bearing the full date, which latter was first made known by Thévenot in his “Recueil de Voyages.” And it was a passage found in the Leyden manuscript (Q 27) which led to the belief that Peregrinus had first observed the variation or declination of the magnetic needle. The passage is as follows: “Take note that the magnet, as well as the needle that has been touched by it, does not point exactly to the poles, but that the part of it which is supposed to point to the South sometimes declines a little to the West, and that the part which looks towards the North sometimes inclines to the East. The exact quantity of this declination I have ascertained, after numerous experiments, to be five degrees. However, this declination is no obstacle to our guidance, because we make the needle itself decline from the true South by nearly one point and a half towards the West. A point contains five degrees.” This passage is unquestionably a late addition, being written in a different hand in a circle which itself is an incompleted outline of one of the figures of Peregrinus’ primitive compass.
References.—“Encyclopædia Metropolitana,” Vol. III. p. 737 (“Bibliotheca Bibliothecarum,” fol. 11, p. 1400; “Catalogue of the MSS. in the library of Geneva,” by Senebier, p. 207); “Bulletino di bibliographia e di storia delle scienze ...” B. Boncompagni, Vol. I. pp. 1–32, 65–99, 101–139, 319–420; Vol. IV. pp. 257–288, 303–331; “Cat. bibl. publicæ univers. Lug. Bat.,” p. 365; W. Wenkebach, “Sur Petrus Adsigerius ...” Rome, 1865 (taken from Vol. VII. No. 3 of the “Annali Pura ed Applicata”); Brunet, “Manuel du Libraire,” 1863, Vol. IV. p. 493; “Br. Museum Library,” 538, G 17; “Journal des Savants,” for April-May 1848, and September 1870; Walker, “Magnetism,” 1866, p. 6; “English Cyclopædia,” Vol. VIII. p. 160, also Dr. Hutton’s “Phil. and Math. Dictionary”; Thos. Young, “A Course of Lectures on Nat. Phil. and the Mechanical Arts,” London, 1807, Vol. I. pp. 746, 756; “Electro-magnetic Phenomena,” by T. A. Lyons, New York, 1901, Vol. I. pp. 105–106; Vol. II. p. 565 (with translation of a portion of the original manuscript); “Examen Critique,” A. de Humboldt, Paris, 1836, Vol. III. p. 31; “Science and Literature of the Middle Ages,” Paul Lacroix, London, pp. 88–89, 280–282; Silvanus P. Thompson, “Proceedings of the British Academy,” 1905–6, p. 377. It may be added that Houzeau et Lancaster, “Bibl. Générale,” Vol. I. part i. p. 640, allude, at No. 3197, to a manuscript of P. Peregrinus, “Nova compositio astrolabii particularis,” as being in the Library of Geneva and as citing the year 1261 in connection with the astronomical tables of John Campan (Campanus, Italian mathematician, who died about 1300): “Biog. Générale,” Vol. VIII. p. 373.
A.D. 1270.—Riccioli (Giovanni Battista), an Italian astronomer, member of the Society of Jesuits, b. 1598, d. 1671, asserts that at this period under the reign of St. Louis (1226–1270), French navigators were already using the magnetic needle, which they kept floating in a small vase of water, and which was supported by two tubes to prevent its falling to the bottom.
For a detailed account of the work of this well-known scientist consult: “Biographie Générale” Vol. XLII. pp. 147–149; Fabroni, “Vitæ Italorum,” Vol. II; Jean Baptiste Delambre, “Hist. de l’Astron. Mod.,” 1821; Davis, “The Chinese,” Vol. III. p. 11; Venanson, “Boussole,” pp. 70–71; Klaproth, “Boussole,” p. 54; Becquerel, “Résumé,” p. 59; Alex. Chalmers, “Gen. Biog. Dict.,” 1811, Vol. XXVI. pp. 182–183; Fischer, “Geschichte der Physik,” Vol. I; Tiraboschi, “Storia della letter. Ital.,” Vol. VIII; “English Cyclopædia,” Vol. V. pp. 76–77. Riccioli’s “Almagestum Novum,” Bologna, 1651, in two volumes, gives in book nine of the second volume the sentence of Galileo. This is the work which an old savant called “the pandects of astronomical knowledge” (Morhof Polyhistor, Vol. II. p. 347).
A.D. 1271–1295.—Polo (Marco), Paulum Venetum, is reported by many to have brought the compass from China to Italy. This is, however, supported by no evidence, nor is any allusion whatever made to the fact in the account he rendered of his voyage. Before Marco Polo set out on his travels, as Humboldt states, the Catalans had already made voyages “along the northern islands of Scotland as well as along the western shores of tropical Africa, while the Basques had ventured forth in search of the whale, and the Northmen had made their way to the Azores (the Bracir islands of Picignano).”
Polo relates that he set out from Acre in 1271, and returned to Venice “in the year 1295 of Christ’s Incarnation.” His “Travels” (“Il Milione di Messer Marco Polo”) according to the review of Col. Henry Yule, consists of a prologue and four books. It was dictated by him to a fellow prisoner, Rusticiano or Rusticello, of Pisa, and “it would appear now to be definitely settled that the original was ... of just such French as we might expect in the thirteenth century from a Tuscan amanuensis following the oral dictation of an Orientalized Venetian.”
Polo’s journeyings extended “so far to the north that he leaves the North Star behind him, and thence so far to the south that the North Star is never seen.”
References.—Becquerel, “Elec. et Magn.,” Vol. I. p. 70; Sonnini, in Buffon, “Minéraux,” Vol. VI. p. 84; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. II. pp. 625, 656, or 1860, pp. 250–251; “The Book of Ser Marco Polo,” by Sir Henry Yule, New York, 1903, which contains a very extensive bibliography at end of the second volume; Libri, “Hist. des Sc. Mathém.,” Paris, 1838, Vol. II. pp. 26, 140, etc.; D. A. Azuni, “Dissertation sur la Boussole,” p. 69; Miller, “Hist. Phil. Ill.,” 1849, Vol. I. pp. 179–180; “Encycl. Brit.,” ninth ed., Vol. XIX. p. 407; “Journal des Savants” for September 1818, also May 1823, and the five articles published January to May 1867; see also “Centennaire de Marco Polo,” par. H. Cordier, Paris, 1896, containing “bibliographie très complète de toutes les éditions de Marco Polo et des ouvrages qui lui sont consacrés.”
A.D. 1282.—Baïlak, native of Kibdjak, wrote this year, in Arabic, his book on “Stones,” wherein he says that he saw during his voyage from Tripoli to Alexandria, in 1242, the captains of the Syrian sea construct a compass in the following manner: “When the night is so dark as to conceal from view the stars which might direct their course according to the position of the four cardinal points, they take a basin full of water, which they shelter from wind by placing it in the interior of the vessel; they then drive a needle into a wooden peg or a corn-stalk, so as to form the shape of a cross, and throw it into the basin of water prepared for the purpose, on the surface of which it floats. They afterwards take a loadstone of sufficient size to fill the palm of the hand, or even smaller; bring it to the surface of the water, give to their hands a rotatory motion towards the right so that the needle turns on the water’s surface; they then suddenly and quickly withdraw their hands, when the two points of the needle face north and south. I have seen them, with my own eyes, do that during my voyage at sea from Tripolis to Alexandria.”
References.—E. Salverte, “Phil. of Magic,” New York, 1847, Vol. II. pp. 221–222, note; “American Journal of Science and Arts,” Vol. XL. p. 247; Davis, “The Chinese,” Vol. III. p. xii; Klaproth, “Lettre à M. de Humboldt,” pp. 59, 60, 67; Knight, “Mech. Dict.,” Vol. II. pp. 1371 and 1397; “Electro-Magn. Phenom.,” by T. A. Lyons, New York, 1901, Vol. II. p. 564.
A.D. 1302.—Gioia—Goia (Flavio or Joannes), an Italian pilot reported born at Positano, near Amalfi, is said by Flamnius Venanson (“De l’invention de la boussole nautique,” Naples, 1808, pp. 138 and 168) to be the real inventor of the mariner’s compass. This view is supported by Briet (Philippe), “Annales Mundi,” Vol. VI: Géog. et Hydrog., lib. x. cap. 8; by Voltaire (“Essai sur les Mœurs,” 1819, Vol. III. chap. cxli.), and by many others, but Klaproth (“Lettre ...” 1834, pp. 132–136) quotes Anthony of Bologna, called the Panormitan, as saying that Gioia lived in the fourteenth century and wrote both “Prima dedit nautis usum magnetis Amalphis” and “Inventrix præclara fuit magnetis Amalphis.” He adds that a statement to the same effect was made by Arrigi Brechmann in his “Historia Pandectarum Amalphitorum,” Dissertatio I, No. 22, Neapoli, 1735, p. 925, but that both are equally incorrect, for Gioja could not have invented an instrument which had already been in use more than a hundred years before his time.[19]
In his “Essay on Several Important Subjects,” London, 1676, Joseph Glanvill remarks (p. 33): “I think there is more acknowledgment due to the name of this obscure fellow, that hath scarce any left, than to a thousand Alexanders and Cæsars or to ten times the number of Aristotles and Aquinas’. And he really did more for the increase of knowledge and advantage of the world, by this one experiment, than the numerous subtile disputers that have lived ever since the creation of the School of Wrangling.”
In the “Navigator’s Supply,” published 1597, William Barlowe speaks of “the lame tale of one Flavius at Amelphus in the Kingdome of Naples; for to have devised it (the compass) is of very slender probabilitie.”
M. D. A. Azuni says (“Boussole,” 1809, p. 144) that Gioja may have possibly invented the method of suspending the magnetic needle upon a perpendicular pivot so that it would remain horizontal whatever the movements of the vessel. This is very likely; at any rate, it must be admitted that this particular mode of support permits a freer movement to the needle in any direction and admits of more exact observations than when the needle is floating upon the water.
At pp. 487–505, Vol. II of his “Histoire des Sciences Mathématiques,” Guillaume Libri transcribes all he is able to from the almost illegible Peter Peregrinus’ manuscript, No. 7378A, in the Paris Bibliothèque, and refers to the imperfect mode of suspending the magnetic needle therein shown. It is, says he, similar to that spoken of by Francesco da Buti (Libri, Vol. II. pp. 67–68; Bertelli, “Pietro Peregrino,” pp. 63–66), who makes first mention of the compass in the Dante commentary (“Comment, sopra la Divina Commedia”) to be found in the collection of manuscripts No. 29, held by the Magliabechiana Library of Florence. He adds that the suspension of the needle is likewise alluded to by Guerino detto il Meschino, in a work first composed prior to the “Divina Commedia” (an Italian romance, attributed to one Andrew the Florentine) as imbellico, or in bellico, in bilico, meaning in suspense, throughout the editions of Padua, 1473, Bologna, 1475, Milan, 1482 and Venice, 1480, 1498. Mention is also made by Libri of the writings of Adélard de Bath on the compass, at p. 62 of his second volume.
References.—Camillus Leonardus, “Speculum Lapidum”; the notes at p. 180, Vol. I. of Dr. Geo. Miller’s “Hist. Phil. Ill.,” London, 1849, Vol. I. p. 179, note; Venanson, “Boussole,” pp. 158, 160; Knight, “Mech. Dict.,” Vol. II. p. 1398; Collenutius—Collenuccio—“Compendio ... regno di Napoli,” Venice, 1591; “Discussione della leggenda di Flavio Gioia, inventore della bussola” (T. Bertelli, in “Rivista di Fisica Mat. e Sc. Nat.,” Pavia, 1901, II. pp. 529–541); Matteo Camara, “Memorie ... di Amalfi,” Salerno, 1876; “Literary Digest,” July 6, 1901, translated from “Le Cosmos,” Paris, June 8, 1901; Giraldi, “Libellus de Re Nautica,” Bâle, 1540; Admiral Luigi Fincati, “Il Magnete, la calamita e la bussola,” Rome, 1878; “Annales de Géographie,” Vol. XI. No. 59, pp. 7–8 for September 15, 1902, and G. Grimaldi in the “Mem. d. Accad. Etrus. di Cortona”; Paulus Jovius, “Historiarum,” Florence, 1552; Pietro Napoli Signorelli, “Sull’invenzione della bussola nautica ...”; M. A. Blondus, “De Ventis,” Venice, 1546; Cælius Calcagninus, “Thesaurus Græcarum Antiquitatum,” 1697, Vol. XI. p. 761; Houzeau et Lancaster, “Bibl. Gén.,” Vol. II. p. 149; “Riv. G. Ital.,” X. 1903, pp. 1, 11, 105–122, 314–334.
For Briet (Philippe), b. 1601, d. 1668, see Michaud, “Biog. Univ.,” Paris, 1843, Vol. V. p. 527. The best, most complete edition of Briet’s “Annales Mundi” is the Venice, 1693.
A.D. 1327–1377.—It has been claimed by F. M. Arouet de Voltaire, who asserts it at Vol. III. pp. 251–252 of his “Essai sur les Mœurs et l’Esprit des Nations,” Paris, 1809, “that the first well-authenticated use of the compass” was made by the English during this period, which is that of the reign of King Edward III.
By Voltaire, the extraordinary (prodigieuse) antiquity of the Chinese is not questioned. They knew of the compass, but he says “it was not employed by them for its proper use, that of guiding vessels at sea. They travelled only along the shores. Possessed, as they were, of a country that furnished everything, they did not feel the need of going, as we do, to the other end of the world” (Vol. I. pp. 239, 247). Speaking of the Portuguese (Vol. III. p. 257) he says: “It was not before known if the magnetic needle would point to the south on approaching the South Pole; it was found to point constantly to the north during the year 1486.”
From the time of Edward III, the compass was known in England by the names of adamant, sailing needle and sail-stone dial, as has been shown in the writings of Chaucer and others, the most important of which will be duly quoted in their order. The compass was alluded to, more particularly, by John Gower, “Confessio Amantis,”[20] Books I and VI; by Richard Hakluyt, “Voyages,” Vol. I. pp. 213, 215; and by Edward Fairfax, “Godefroy de Boulogne,” Book XV. s. 18.
It may be well to record here that Voltaire was “confessedly the foremost name, the acknowledged head of European literature of his time.” Goethe calls him “the greatest literary man of all time, the most astonishing creation of the Author of Nature” (“Nouvelle Biographie,” Vol. XLV. i. p. 445). Though not the first French author who wrote on the wonderful discoveries of Newton, he was the first to make them extensively known on the Continent.
References.—Sir Harris Nicolas, “Hist. Roy. Navy,” 1847, Vol. II. p. 180; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1859, Vol. V. p. 57, note; Whewell, “Hist. of the Ind. Sc.,” 1859, Vol. I. p. 431; “Crit. and Misc. Essays,” by Thomas Carlyle, Boston, 1860, pp. 5–78. “La France Littéraire,” par Joseph M. Quérard, Vol. X. Paris, 1839, pp. 276–457, devotes as many as 182 pages to bibliographical notices of Voltaire and names 1131 publications written by or relating to him, whilst in Quérard’s “Bibliographie Voltairienne” will be found a still more extended account at pp. i-xxxvi and at pp. 1–84.