WILLIAM GILBERT
ON THE LOADSTONE, BK. I.
[CHAP. I].
ANCIENT AND MODERN WRITINGS
on the Loadstone, with certain matters of mention only,
various opinions, & vanities.
[CHAP. II].
Magnet Stone, of what kind it is, and its
discovery.
The Magnet's name the observing Grecians drew
From the Magnetick region where it grew.
It is called Heraclean from the city Heraclea, or from the invincible Hercules, on account of the great strength and domination and power which there is in iron of subduing all things: it is also called siderite, as being of iron; being not unknown to the most ancient writers, to the Greeks, Hippocrates, and others, as also (I believe) to Jewish and Egyptian writers; For in the oldest mines of iron, the most famous in Asia, the loadstone was often dug out with its uterine brother, iron. And if the tales be true which are told of the people of the Chinas, they were not unacquainted in primitive times with magnetical experiments, for even amongst
them the finest magnets of all are still found. The Egyptians, as Manetho relates, gave it the name Os Ori: calling the power which governs the turning of the sun Orus, as the Greeks call it Apollo. But later by Euripides, as narrated by Plato, it was designated under the name of Magnet. By Plato in the Io, Nicander of Colophon, Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny, Solinus, Ptolemy, Galen, and other investigators of nature it was recognized and commended; such, however, is the variety of magnets and their points of unlikeness in hardness, softness, heaviness, lightness, density, firmness, and friability of substance: so great and manifold are the differences in colour and other qualities, that they have not handed down any adequate account of it, which therefore was laid aside or left imperfect by reason of the unfavourable character of the time; for in those times varieties of specimens and foreign products never before seen were not brought from such distant regions by traders and mariners as they have been lately, and now that all over the globe all kinds of merchandise, stones, woods, spices, herbs, metals, and ore in abundance are greedily sought after: neither was metallurgy so generally cultivated in a former age. There is a difference in vigour; as whether it is male or female: for it was thus that the ancients used often to distinguish many individuals of the same species. Pliny quotes from Sotacus five kinds; those from Æthiopia, Macedonia, Bœotia, the Troad, and Asia, which were especially known to the ancients: but we have posited as many kinds of loadstones as there are in the whole of nature regions of different kinds of soil. For in all climates, in every province, on every soil, the loadstone is either found, or else lies unknown on account of its rather deep site and inaccesible position; or by reason of its weaker and less obvious strength it is not recognized by us while we see and handle it. To the ancients the differences were those of colour[[49]], how they are red and black in Magnesia and Macedonia, in Bœotia red rather than black, in the Troad black, without strength: While in Magnesia in Asia they are white, not attracting iron, and resemble pumice-stone. A strong loadstone of the kind celebrated so often nowadays in experiments presents the appearance of unpolished iron, and is mostly found in iron mines: it is even wont to be discovered in an unbroken lode by itself: Loadstones of this sort are brought from East India, China, and Bengal, of the colour of iron, or of a dark blood or liver colour; and these are the finest, and are sometimes of great size, as though broken off a great rock, and of considerable weight; sometimes single stones, as it were, and entire: some of these, though of only one pound weight, can lift on high four ounces of iron or a half-pound or even a whole pound. Red ones are found in Arabia, as broad as a tile, not equal in weight to those brought from China, but strong and good: they are a little darker in the island of Elba in the Tuscan sea, and together with
these also grow white ones, like some in Spain in the mines of Caravaca: but these are of lesser power. Black ones also are found, of lower strength, such as those of the iron mines in Norway and in sea-coast places near the strait of Denmark. Amongst the blue-black or dusky blue also some are strong and highly commended. Other loadstones are of a leaden colour, fissile and not-fissile, capable of being split like slates in layers. I have also some like gray marble of an ashen colour, and some speckled like gray marble, and these take the finest polish. In Germany there are some perforated like honeycombs, lighter than any others, and yet strong. Those are metallick which smelt into the best iron; others are not easily smelted, but are burned up. There are loadstones that are very heavy, as also others very light; some are very powerful in catching up pieces of iron, while others are weaker and of less capacity, others so feeble and barren that they with difficulty attract ever so tiny a piece of iron and cannot repel an opposite magnetick. Others are firm and tough, and do not readily yield to the artificer. Others are friable. Again, there are some dense and hard as emery, or loose-textured and soft as pumice; porous or solid; entire and uniform, or varied and corroded; now like iron for hardness, yea, sometimes harder than iron to cut or to file; others are as soft as clay. Not all magnets can be properly called stones; some rather represent rocks; while others exist rather as metallick lodes; others as clods and lumps of earth. Thus varied and unlike each other, they are all endowed, some more, some less, with the peculiar virtue. For they vary according to the nature of the soil, the different admixture of clods and humours, having respect to the nature of the region and to their subsidence in this last-formed crust of the earth, resulting from the confluence of many causes, and the perpetual alternations of growth and decline, and the mutations of bodies. Nor is this stone of such potency rare; and there is no region wherein it is not to be found in some sort. But if men were to search for it more diligently and at greater outlay, or were able, where difficulties are present, to mine it, it would come to hand everywhere, as we shall hereafter prove. In many countries have been found and opened mines of efficacious loadstones unknown to the ancient writers, as for instance in Germany, where none of them has ever asserted that loadstones were mined. Yet since the time when, within the memory of our fathers, metallurgy began to flourish there, loadstones strong and efficacious in power have been dug out in numerous places; as in the Black Forest beyond Helceburg; in Mount Misena not far from Schwartzenberg[[50]]; a fairly strong kind between Schneeberg and Annaberg in Joachimsthal, as was noticed by Cordus: also near the village of Pela in Franconia. In Bohemia it occurs in iron mines in the Lessa district and other places, as Georgious Agricola and several other men learned in metallurgy
witness. In like manner in other countries in our time it is brought to light; for as the stone remarkable for its virtues is now famous throughout the whole world, so also everywhere every land produces it, and it is, so to speak, indigenous in all lands. In East India, in China, in Bengal near the river Indus it is common, and in certain maritime rocks: in Persia, Arabia, and the islands of the Red Sea; in many places in Æthiopia, as was formerly Zimiri, of which Pliny makes mention. In Asia Minor around Alexandria and the Troad; in Macedonia, Bœotia, in Italy, the island of Elba, Barbary; in Spain still in many mines as aforetime. In England quite lately a huge power of it was discovered in a mine belonging to Adrian Gilbert, gentleman[[51]]; also in Devonshire and the Forest of Dean; in Ireland, too, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Lapland, Livonia, Prussia, Poland, Hungary. For although the terrestrial globe, owing to the varied humours and natures of the soil arising from the continual succession of growth and decay, is in the lapse of time efflorescing through all its ambit deeper into its surface, and is girt about with a varied and perishable covering, as it were with a veil; yet out of her womb ariseth in many places an offspring nigher to the more perfect body and makes its way to the light of day. But the weak and less vigorous loadstones, enfeebled by the flow of humours, are visible in every region, in every strath. It is easy to discover a vast quantity of them everywhere without penetrating mountains or great depths, or encountering the difficulties and hardships of miners; as we shall prove in the sequel. And these we shall take pains so to prepare by an easy operation that their languid and dormant virtue shall be made manifest. It is called by the Greeks[[52]] ἑράκλιος, as by Theophrastus, and μαγνῆτις; and μάγνης, as by Euripides, as quoted by Plato in the Io: by Orpheus[[53]] too μαγνῆοσα, and σιδερίτης as though of iron: by the Latins magnes, Herculeus; by the French aimant[[54]], corruptly from adamant; by the Spaniards piedramant: by the Italians calamita[[55]]; by the English loadstone and adamant stone[[56]], by the Germans magness[[57]] and siegelstein: Among English, French, and Spaniards it has its common name from adamant; perhaps because they were at one time misled by the name sideritis being common to both: the magnet is called σιδερίτης from its virtue of attracting iron: the adamant is called σιδερίτης from the brilliancy of polished iron. Aristotle designates it merely by the name of the stone:[[58]] Ἔοικε δὲ καὶ θαλῆς ἐξ ὧν ἀπομνημονεύουσι, κινητικόν τι τὴν ψυχὴν ὑπολαβεῖν, ἔιπερ τὸν λίθον ἔφη ψυχὴν ἔχειν, ὅτι τὸν σίδηρον κινεῖ: De Anima, Lib. I. The name of magnet is also applied to another stone differing from siderite, having the appearance of silver; it is like Amianth in its nature; and since it consists of laminæ (like specular stone)[[59]], it differs in form: in German Katzensilber and Talke[[60]].
[CHAP. III].
The Loadstone has parts distinct in their natural
power, & poles conspicuous for their property.
On the stone A B the versorium is placed in such a way that the versorium may remain in equilibrium: you will mark with chalk the course of the iron when at rest: Move the instrument to another spot, and again make note of the direction and aspect: do the same thing in several places, and from the concurrence of the lines of direction you will find one pole at the point A, the other at B. A versorium placed near the stone also indicates the true pole; when at right angles it eagerly beholds the stone and seeks the pole itself directly, and is turned in a straight line through the axis to the
centre of the stone. For instance, the versorium D faces toward A and F, the pole and centre, whereas E does not exactly respect * either the pole A or the centre F[[64]]. A bit of rather fine iron wire, of the length of a barley-corn, is placed on the stone, and is moved over the regions and surface of the stone, until it rises to the perpendicular[[65]]: for it stands erect at the actual pole, whether Boreal or austral; the further from the pole, the more it inclines from the vertical. The poles thus found you shall mark with a sharp file or gimlet.
[CHAP. IIII].
Which pole of the stone is the Boreal: & how it is
distinguished from the austral.
[CHAP. V].
Loadstone seems to attract Loadstone when in natural
position: but repels it when in a contrary one, and brings
it back to order.
And you will then see[[68]] that A the northern point will turn to the south, as before; in like manner also the point D will move to the north, in the divided stone, as in the whole one. Whereas, of the parts B and C, which were before continuous, and are now divided, the one is southern B, the other northern C. B draws C, desirous to be united, and to be brought back into its pristine continuity: for these which are now two stones were formed out of one: and for this cause C of the one turning itself to B of the other, they mutually attract each other, and when freed from obstacles and relieved of their own weight, as upon the surface of water, they run together and are conjoined. But if you direct the part or point A to C in the other stone, the one repels or turns away from the other: for so were nature perverted, and the form of the stone perturbed, a form that strictly keeps the laws which it imposed upon bodies: hence, when all is not rightly ordered according to nature, comes the flight of one from the other's perverse position and from the discord, for nature does not allow of an unjust and inequitable peace, or compromise: but wages war and exerts force to make bodies acquiesce well and justly. Rightly arranged, therefore, these mutually attract each other; that is, both stones, the stronger as well as the weaker, run together, and with their whole forces tend to unity, a fact that is evident in all magnets, not in the Æthiopian only, as Pliny supposed. The Æthiopian magnets if they be powerful, like those brought from China, because all strong ones show the effect more quickly and more plainly, attract more strongly in the parts nearest the pole, and turn about until pole looks directly at pole. The pole of a stone more persistently attracts and more rapidly seizes the corresponding part (which they term the adverse part) of another stone; for instance, North pulls South; just so it also summons iron with more vehemence, and the iron cleaves to it more firmly whether it have been previously excited by the magnet, or is untouched. For thus, not without reason hath it been ordained by nature, that the parts nearer to the pole should more firmly attract: but that at the pole itself should be the seat, the throne, as it were, of a consummate and splendid virtue, to which magnetical bodies on being brought are more vehemently attracted, and from which they are with utmost difficulty dislodged. So the poles are the parts which more particularly spurn and thrust away things strange and alien perversely set beside them.
[CHAP. VI].
Loadstone attracts the ore of iron, as well as iron
proper, smelted and wrought.
[CHAP. VII].
What Iron is, and of what substance,
and its uses.
[[70]]Here corn exults, and there the grape is glad,
Here trees and grass unbidden verdure add.
So mark how Tmolus yields his saffrone store,
But ivory is the gift of Indian shore;
With incense soft the softer Shebans deal;
The stark Chalybeans' element is steel:
With acrid castor reek the Pontic wares,
Epirus wins the palm of Elian mares.
But what the Chemists (as Geber, and others) call fixed earthy sulphur in iron is nothing else than the homogenic earth-substance concreted by its own humour, amalgamated with a double fluid: a metallick humour is inserted along with a small quantity of the substance of the earth not devoid of humour. Wherefore the common saying that in gold there is pure earth, but in iron mostly impure, is wrong; as though there were indeed such a thing as natural earth, and that the globe itself were (by some unknown process of refining) depurate. In iron, especially in the best iron, there is earth in its own nature true and genuine; in the other metals there is not so much earth as that in place of earth and precipitates there are consolidated and (so to speak) fixed salts, which are efflorescences of the globe, and which differ also greatly
in firmness and consistency: In the mines their force rises up along with a twofold humour from the exhalations, they solidify in the underground spaces into metallic veins: so too they are also connate by virtue of their place and of the surrounding bodies, in natural matrices, and take on their specific forms. Of the various constitutions of loadstones and their diverse substances, colours, and virtues, mention has been made before: but, now having stated the cause and origin of metals, we have to examine ferruginous matter not as it is in the smelted metal, but as that from which the metal is refined. Quasi-pure iron is found of its proper colour and in its own lodes; still, not as it will presently be, nor as adapted for its various uses. It is sometimes dug up covered with white silex or with other stones. It is often the same in river sand, as in Noricum. A nearly pure ore of iron is now often dug up in Ireland, which the smiths, without the labours of furnaces, hammer out in the smithy into iron implements. In France iron is very commonly smelted out of a liver-coloured stone, in which are glittering scales; the same kind[[71]] without the scales is found in England, which also they use for craftsmen's ruddle[[72]]. In Sussex in England[[73]] is a rich dusky ore and also one of a pale ashen hue, both of which on being dried for a time, or kept in moderate fires, presently acquire a liver-colour; here also is found a dusky ore square-shaped with a black rind of greater hardness. An ore having the appearance of liver is often variously intermingled with other stones: as also with the perfect loadstone which yields the best of iron. There is also a rusty ore of iron, one of a leaden hue tending to black, one quite black, or black mixed with true cobalt: there is another sort mixed either with pyrites, or with sterile plumbago. One kind is also like jet, another like bloodstone. The emery used by armourers, and by glaziers for glass-cutting, called amongst the English Emerelstone, by the Germans Smeargel, is ferruginous; albeit iron is extracted from it with difficulty, yet it attracts the versorium. It is now and then found in deep iron and silver diggings. Thomas Erastus says he had heard from a certain learned man of iron ores, of the colour of iron, but quite soft and fatty, which can be smoothed with the fingers like butter, out of which excellent iron can be smelted: somewhat the same we have seen found in England, having the aspect of Spanish soap. Besides the numberless kinds of stony ores, iron is extracted from clay, from clayey earth, from ochre, from a rusty matter deposited from chalybeate waters; In England iron is copiously extracted in furnaces often from sandy and clayey stones which appear to contain iron not more than sand, marl, or any other clay soils contain it. Thus in Aristotle's book De Mirabilibus Auscultationibus[[74]], "There is said" (he states) "to be a peculiar formation of Chalybean and Misenian iron, for instance the sort collected from river gravel; some say
that after being simply washed it is smelted in the furnace; others declare that it and the sediment which subsides after several washings are cast in and purified together by the fire; with the addition of the stone pyrimachus which is found there in abundance." Thus do numerous sorts of things contain in their various substances notably and abundantly this element of iron and earth. However, there are many stones, and very common ones, found in every soil, also earths, and various and mixed materials, which do not hold rich substances, but yet have their own iron elements, and yield them to skilfully-made fires, yet which are left aside by metallick men because they are less profitable; while other soils give some show of a ferruginous nature, yet (being very barren) are hardly ever smelted down into iron; and being neglected are not generally known. Manufactured irons differ very greatly amongst themselves. For one kind is tenacious in its nature, and this is the best; one is of medium quality: another is brittle, and this is the worst. Sometimes the iron, by reason of the excellency of the ore, is wrought into steel, as to-day in Noricum. From the finest iron, too, well wrought and purged from all dross, or by being plunged in water after heating, there issues what the Greeks call στόμωμα; the Latins acies; others aciarium, such as was at times called Syrian, Parthian, Noric, Comese, Spanish; elsewhere it is named from the water in which it is so often plunged, as at Como in Italy[[75]], Bambola and Tarazona in Spain. Acies fetches a much larger price than mere iron. And owing to its superiority it better accords with the loadstone, from which more powerful quality it is often smelted, and it acquires the virtues from it more quickly, retains them longer at their full, and in the best condition for magnetical experiments. After iron has been smelted in the first furnaces, it is afterward wrought by various arts in large worksteads or mills, the metal acquiring consistency when hammered with ponderous blows, and throwing off the dross. After the first smelting it is rather brittle and by no means perfect. Wherefore with us (English) when the larger military guns are cast, they purify the metal from dross more fully, so that they may be stronger to withstand the force of the firing; and they do this by making it pass again (in a fluid state) through a chink, by which process it sheds its recremental matter. Smiths render iron sheets tougher with certain liquids, and by blows of the hammer, and from them make shields and breastplates that defy the blows of battle-axes. Iron becomes harder through skill and proper tempering, but also by skill turns out in a softer condition and as pliable as lead. It is made hard by the action of certain waters into which while glowing it is plunged, as at Bambola and Tarazona in Spain: It grows soft again, either by the effect of fire alone, when without hammering and without water, it is left to cool by itself; or by that of grease into which it is plunged; or
(that it may the better serve for various trades) it is tempered variously by being skilfully besmeared. Baptista Porta expounds this art in book 13 of his Magia Naturalis. Thus this ferric and telluric nature is included and taken up in various bodies of stones, ores, and earths; so too it differs in aspect, in form, and in efficiency. Art smelts it by various processes, improves it, and turns it, above all material substances, to the service of man in trades and appliances without end. One kind of iron is adapted for breastplates, another serves as a defence against shot, another protects against swords and curved blades (commonly called scimitars), another is used for making swords, another for horseshoes. From iron are made nails, hinges, bolts, saws, keys, grids, doors, folding-doors, spades, rods, pitchforks, hooks, barbs, tridents, pots, tripods, anvils, hammers, wedges, chains, hand-cuffs, fetters, hoes, mattocks, sickles, baskets, shovels, harrows, planes, rakes, ploughshares, forks, pans, dishes, ladles, spoons, spits, knives, daggers, swords, axes, darts, javelins, lances, spears, anchors, and much ship's gear. Besides these, balls, darts, pikes, breastplates, helmets, cuirasses, horseshoes, greaves, wire, strings of musical instruments, chairs, portcullises, bows, catapults, and (pests of human kind) cannon, muskets, and cannon-balls, with endless instruments unknown to the Latins: which things I have rehearsed in order that it may be understood how great is the use of iron, which surpasses a hundred times that of all the other metals; and is day by day being wrought by metal-workers whose stithies are found in almost every village. For this is the foremost of metals, subserving many and the greatest needs of man, and abounds in the earth above all other metals, and is predominant. Wherefore those Chemists are fools[[76]] who think that nature's will is to perfect all metals into gold; she might as well be making ready to change all stones to diamonds, since diamond surpasses all in splendour and hardness, because gold excels in splendour, gravity, and density, being invincible against all deterioration. Iron as dug up is therefore, like iron that has been smelted, a metal, differing a little indeed from the primary homogenic terrestrial body, owing to the metallick humour it has imbibed; yet not so alien as that it will not, after the manner of refined matter, admit largely of the magnetick forces, and may be associated with that prepotent form belonging to the earth, and yield to it a due submission.
[CHAP. VIII].
In what countries and districts iron
originates.
[CHAP. IX].
Iron ore attracts iron ore.
[CHAP. X].
*
Iron ore has poles, and acquires them, and settles
itself toward the poles of the universe.
[CHAP. XI].
*
Wrought Iron, not excited by a loadstone,
draws iron.
[CHAP. XII].
*
A long piece of Iron, even though not excited by a
loadstone, settles itself toward North and South.
[CHAP. XIII].
*
Wrought iron has in itself certain parts Boreal and Austral:
A magnetick vigour, verticity, and determinate
vertices, or poles.
[CHAP. XIIII].
Concerning other powers of loadstone, and its
medicinal properties.
[CHAP. XV].
The Medicinal Virtue of Iron.[[93]]
[CHAP. XVI].
That loadstone & iron ore are the same, but iron an
extract from both, as other metals are from their own
ores; & that all magnetick virtues, though
weaker, exist in the ore itself & in
smelted iron.
[CHAP. XVII].
That the globe of the earth is magnetick, & a magnet; &
how in our hands the magnet stone has all the primary
forces of the earth, while the earth by the
same powers remains constant in a
fixed direction in the
universe.
BOOK SECOND.
[CHAP. I].
ON MAGNETICK
Motions.
[CHAP. II].
On the Magnetick Coition, and first on the
Attraction of Amber, or more truly, on the
Attaching of Bodies to Amber.
[CHAP. III].
Opinions of others on Magnetick Coition,
which they call Attraction.
[[149]]First, then, know,
Ceaseless effluvia from the magnet flow,—
Effluvia, whose superior powers expel
The air that lies between the stone and steel.
A vacuum formed, the steely atoms fly
In a link'd train, and all the void supply;
While the whole ring to which the train is join'd
The influence owns, and follows close behind. &c.
Such a reason Plutarch also alleges in the Quæstiones Platonicæ: That that stone gives off heavy exhalations, whereby the adjacent air, being impelled along, condenses that which is in front of it; and that air, being driven round in an orbe and reverting to the place it had vacated, drags the iron forcibly along with it. The following explanation of the virtues of the loadstone and of amber is propounded by Johannes Costæus of Lodi[[150]]. For he would have it that "there is mutual work and mutual result, and therefore the motion is partly due to the attraction of the loadstone and partly to a spontaneous movement on the part of the iron: For as we say that vapours issuing from the loadstone hasten by their own nature to attract the iron, so also the air repelled by the vapours, whilst seeking a place for itself, is turned back, and when turned back, it impels the iron, lifts it up, as it were, and carries it along; the iron being of itself also excited somehow. So by being drawn out and by a spontaneous motion, and by striking against another substance, there is in some way produced a composite motion, which motion would nevertheless be rightly referred to attraction, because the terminus from which this motion invariably begins is the same terminus at which it ends, which is the characteristic proper of an attraction." There is certainly a mutual action, not an operation, nor does the loadstone attract in that way; nor is there any impulsion. But neither is there that origination of the motion by the vapours, and the turning of them back, which opinion of Epicurus has so often been quoted by others. Galen errs in his De Naturalibus Facultatibus, Book I., chap. 14, when he expresses the view that whatever agents draw out either the venom of serpents or darts also exhibit the same power as the loadstone. Now of what sort may be the attraction of such medicaments (if indeed it may be called attraction) we shall consider elsewhere. Drugs against poisons or darts have no relation to, no similitude with, the action of magnetical bodies. The followers of Galen (who hold that purgative medicaments attract because of similitude of substance) say that bodies are attracted on account of similitude, not identity, of substance; wherefore the loadstone draws iron, but iron does not draw iron. But we declare and prove that this happens in primary bodies, and in those bodies that are pretty closely related to them and especially like in kind one to another, on account of their identity; wherefore also loadstone draws loadstone and likewise iron iron; every really true earth draws earth; and iron fortified by a loadstone within the orbe of whose virtue it is placed draws iron more strongly than it does the loadstone. Cardan asks why no other metal is attracted by any other stone; because (he replies) no metal is so cold as iron; as if indeed cold were the cause of the attraction, or as if iron were much colder than lead, which neither follows nor is deflected towards a loadstone.
But that is a chilly story, and worse than an old woman's tale. So also is the notion that the loadstone is alive and that iron is its food. But how does the loadstone feed on the iron, when the filings in which it is kept are neither consumed nor become lighter? Cornelius Gemma, Cosmographia, Bk. X.[[151]], holds that the loadstone draws iron to it by insensible rays, to which opinion he conjoins a story of a sucking fish and another about an antelope. Guilielmus Puteanus[[152]] derives it, "not from any property of the whole substance unknown to any one and which cannot be demonstrated in any way (as Galen, and after him almost all the physicians, have asserted), but from the essential nature of the thing itself, as if moving from the first by itself, and, as it were, by its own most powerful nature and from that innate temperament, as it were an instrument, which its substance, its effective nature uses in its operations, or a secondary cause and deprived of its intermediary"; so the loadstone attracts the iron not without a physical cause and for the sake of some good. But there is no such thing in other substances springing from some material form; unless it were primary, which he does not recognize. But certes good is shown to the loadstone by the stroke of the iron (as it were, association with a friend); yet it cannot either be discovered or conceived how that disposition may be the instrument of form. For what can temperament do in magnetical motions, which must be compared with the fixed, definite, constant motions of the stars, at great distances in case of the interposition of very dense and thick bodies? To Baptista Porta[[153]] the loadstone seems a sort of mixture of stone and iron, in such a way that it is an iron stone or stony iron. "But I think" (he says) "the Loadstone is a mixture of stone and iron, as an iron stone, or a stone of iron. Yet do not think the stone is so changed into iron, as to lose its own Nature, nor that the iron is so drowned in the stone, but it preserves itself; and whilst one labours to get the victory of the other, the attraction is made by the combat between them. In that body there is more of the stone than of iron; and therefore the iron, that it may not be subdued by the stone, desires the force and company of iron; that being not able to resist alone, it may be able by more help to defend itself.... The Loadstone draws not stones, because it wants them not, for there is stone enough in the body of it; and if one Loadstone draw another, it is not for the stone, but for the iron that is in it." As if in the loadstone the iron were a distinct body and not mixed up as the other metals in their ores! And that these, being so mixed up, should fight with one another, and should extend their quarrel, and that in consequence of the battle auxiliary forces should be called in, is indeed absurd. But iron itself, when excited by a loadstone, seizes iron no less strongly than the loadstone. Therefore those fights, seditions, and conspiracies in the stone, as if it were nursing up perpetual quarrels,
whence it might seek auxiliary forces, are the ravings of a babbling old woman, not the inventions of a distinguished mage. Others have lit upon sympathy as the cause. There may be fellow-feeling, and yet the cause is not fellow-feeling; for no passion can rightly be said to be an efficient cause. Others hold likeness of substance, many others insensible rays as the cause; men who also in very many cases often wretchedly misuse rays, which were first introduced in the natural sciences by the mathematicians. More eruditely does Scaliger[[154]] say that the iron moves toward the loadstone as if toward its parent, by whose secret principles it may be perfected, just as the earth toward its centre. The Divine Thomas[[155]] does not differ much from him, when in the 7th book of his Physica he discusses the reasons of motions. "In another way," he says, "it may be said to attract a thing, because it moves it to itself by altering it in some way, from which alteration it happens that when altered it moves according to its position, and in this manner the loadstone is said to attract iron. For as the parent moves things whether heavy or light, in as far as it gives them a form, by means of which they are moved to their place; so also the loadstone gives a certain quality to the iron, in accordance with which it moves towards it." This by no means ill-conceived opinion this most learned man shortly afterwards endeavoured to confirm by things which had obtained little credence respecting the loadstone and the adverse forces of garlick. Cardinal Cusan[[156]] also is not to be despised. "Iron has," he says, "in the loadstone a certain principle of its own effluence; and whilst the loadstone by its own presence excites the heavy and ponderous iron, the iron is borne by a wonderful yearning, even above the motion of nature (by which in accordance with its weight it ought to tend downwards) and moves upwards, in uniting itself with its own principle. For if there were not in the iron a certain natural foretaste of the loadstone itself, it would not move to the loadstone any more than to any other stone; and unless there were in the stone a greater inclination for iron than for copper, there would not be that attraction." Such are the opinions expressed about the loadstone attracting (or the general sense of each), all dubious and untrustworthy. But those causes of the magnetical motions, which in the schools of the Philosophers are referred to the four elements and the prime qualities, we relinquish to the moths and the worms.
[CHAP. IIII].
On Magnetick Force & Form, what it is; and on the
cause of the Coition.
[CHAP. V].
How the Power dwells in the
Loadstone.
At C and D there is no force alluring magnetick ends to the body, for the forces tend toward both poles. But direction is powerful on the æquator. At C, D, the distances are equal from both poles; therefore iron which is at C, D, when it is allured in contrary ways, does not adhære with constancy; but it remains and is joined to the stone, if only it incline to the one or other side. At E there is a greater power of alluring than at F, because E is nearer the pole. This is not so because there is really greater virtue residing at the pole, but since all the parts are united in the whole, they direct their forces towards the pole. From the forces flowing from the plane of the æquinoctial towards the pole, the power increases. A fixed verticity exists at the pole, so long as the loadstone remains whole; if it is divided or broken, the verticity obtains other * positions in the parts into which it is divided. For the verticity always changes in consequence of any change in the mass, and for this cause, if the terrella be divided from A to B, so that there are two stones, the poles will not be A, B, in the divided parts, but F, G, and H, I.
Although these stones now are in agreement with one another, so that F would not seek H, yet if A was previously the boreal pole[[163]], F is now boreal, and H also boreal; for the verticity is not changed (as Baptista Porta incorrectly affirms in the fourth chapter of his seventh book); since, though F and H do not agree, so that the one would incline to the other, yet both turn to the same point of the horizon. If the hemisphere H I be divided into two quadrants, the one pole takes up its position in H, the other in I. The whole mass of the stone, as I have said, retains the site of its vertex constant; and any part of the stone, before it was cut out from the block[[164]], might have been the pole or vertex. But concerning this more under Direction. It is important now to comprehend and to keep firmly in mind that the vertices are strong on account of the force of the whole, so that (the command being, as it were, divided by the æquinoctial) all the forces on one side tend towards the north; but those of an opposite way towards the south, so long as the parts are united, as in the following demonstration.
For so, by an infinite number of curves from every point of the equator dividing the sphere into two equal parts, and from every point of the surface from the æquator towards the North, and from the æquator towards the Southern pole, the whole force tends asunder toward the poles. So the verticity is from the æquinoctial
circle towards the pole in each direction. Such is the power reposed in the undivided stone. From A vigour is sent to B, from A, B, to C, from A, B, C, to D, and from them likewise to E. In like manner from G to H, and so forth, as long as the whole is united. But if a piece A B be cut out (although it is near the æquator), yet it will be as strong in its magnetical actions as C D or D E, if torn away from the whole in equal quantity. For no part excels in special worth in the whole mass except by what is owing to the other adjoining parts by which an absolute and perfect whole is attained.
Diagram of Magnetic Vigour
transmitted from the plane of the Æquator
to the peripherery of the terella
or of the earth
HEQ is a terrella, E a pole, M the centre, HMQ the æquinoctial plane. From every point of the æquinoctial plane vigour extends to the periphery, but by various methods; for from A the formal force is transmitted towards C, F, N, E, and to every point from C up to E, the pole; but not towards B; so neither from G towards C. The power of alluring is not strengthened in the part FHG from that which is in GMFE, but FGH increases the force in the eminence FE. So no force rises from the internal parts, from the lines parallel to the Axis above those parallels, but always inwards from the parallels to the pole. From every point of the plane of the equator force proceeds to the pole E, but the point F has its powers only from GH, and N from OH; but the pole E is strengthened from the whole plane HQ. Wherefore in it the mighty power excels (just as in a palace); but in the intermediate intervals (as in F) only so much force of alluring is exerted as the portion HG of the plane can contribute.
[CHAP. VI].
How magnetick pieces of Iron and smaller
loadstones conform themselves to a terrella & to
the earth itself, and by them are
disposed.
The nearer the parts are to the æquinoctial, the more obliquely are magneticals allured; but the parts nearer the poles appeal more directly, at the poles quite straight. The principle of the turning of all loadstones, of those which are round and those which are long, is the same, but in the case of the long ones the experiment is easier. For in whatever form they are the verticity exists, and there are poles; but on account of bad and unequal form, they are often hindered by certain evils. If the stone were long, the vertex is at the ends, not on the sides; it allures more strongly at the vertex. For the parts bring together stronger forces to the pole in right lines than oblique. So the stone and the earth conform their magnetick motions by their nature.
[CHAP. VII].
On the Potency of the Magnetick Virtue, and on
its nature capable of spreading out into an orbe.
[CHAP. VIII].
On the geography of the Earth,
and of the Terrella.
[CHAP. IX].
On the Æquinoctial Circle of the Earth
and of a Terrella.
As conceived by astronomers the æquinoctial circle is equidistant from both poles, cutting the world in the middle, measures the motions of their primum mobile or tenth sphere, and is named the zone of the primum mobile. It is called æquinoctial, because when the sun stands in it (which must happen twice in the year) the days are equal to the nights. That circle is also spoken of as æquidialis, wherefore it is called by the Greeks ἰσημερινός. In like manner it is also properly called Æquator, because it divides the whole frame of the earth between the poles into equal parts. So also an æquator may be rightly assigned to a terrella, by which its power is naturally divided, and by the plane of which permeating through its centre, the whole globe is divided into equal parts both in quantity and strength (as if by a transverse septum) between verticities on both sides imbued with equal vigour.
[CHAP. X].
Magnetick Meridians of the Earth.
[CHAP. XI].
Parallels.
[CHAP. XII].
The Magnetick Horizon.
[CHAP. XIII].
On the Axis and Magnetick Poles.
[CHAP. XIIII].
Why at the Pole itself the Coition is stronger than in
the other parts intermediate between the æquator and the pole;
and on the proportion of forces of the coition in
various parts of the earth and of the terrella.
[CHAP. XV].
*
The Magnetick Virtue which is conceived in Iron is
more apparent in an iron rod than in a piece of iron that
is round, square, or of other figure.
[CHAP. XVI].
Showing that Movements take place by the Magnetical
Vigour though solid bodies lie between; and on
the interposition of iron plates.
B is a loadstone, C D a long rod magnetized in the middle A; E being the Boreal pole; C is an Austral end or pole; in like manner also the end D is another Austral pole. But observe here the exactness with which a versorium touched by a pole, when a round plate is interposed, turns towards the same pole in the same * way as before the interposition, only weaker; the plate not standing in the way, because the vigour is diverted through the edges of the small plate, and passes out of its straight course, but yet the plate retains in the middle the same verticity, when it is in the neighbourhood of that pole, and close to it; wherefore the versorium tends towards the plate, having been touched by the same pole. If a loadstone is rather weak, a versorium hardly turns when a plate is put in between; for the vigour of the rather weak loadstone, being diffused through the extremities, passes less through the * middle. But if the plate has been touched in this way by a pole in the middle and has been removed from the stone outside its orbe of virtue, then you will see the point of the same versorium tend in the contrary direction and desert the centre of the small plate, which formerly it desired; for outside the orbe of virtue it has an opposite verticity, in the vicinity the same; for in the vicinity it is, as it were, a part of the loadstone, and has the same pole.
A is an iron plate near the pole, B a versorium which tends with its point towards the centre of the small plate, which has been touched by the pole of the loadstone C. But if the same small plate be
placed outside the orbe of magnetick virtue, the point will not turn towards its centre, but the cross E of the same versorium does. But an iron globe interposed (if it is not too large) attracts the * point of the iron on the other side of the stone. For the verticity of that side is the same as that of the adjoining pole of the stone. And this turning of the cusp (that is, of the end touched by that pole) as well as of the cross-end, at a greater distance, takes place with an iron globe interposed, which would not happen at all if * the space were empty, because the magnetick virtue is passed on and continued through magnetick bodies.
A is a terrella, B an iron globe; between the two bodies is F, a versorium whose point has been excited by the pole C. In the other figure A is a terrella, C its pole, B an iron globe; where the versorium tends towards C, the pole of the terrella, through the iron globe. So a versorium placed between a terrella and an iron globe vibrates more forcibly towards the pole of the terrella; because the loadstone sends an instantaneous verticity into the opposite globe. There is the same efficiency in the earth, produced from the same cause. For if a revolvable needle is shut up in a rather thick gold box (this metal indeed excels all others in density) or a glass or stone box, nevertheless that magnetick needle has its forces connected and united with the influences of the earth, and the iron will turn freely and readily (unhindered by its prison) to its desired points, North and South. * It even does this when shut up in iron caverns, if they are sufficiently spacious. Whatever bodies are produced among us, or are artificially forged from things which are produced, consist of matter of the terrestrial globe; nor do those bodies hinder the prime forces of nature which are derived from their primary form, nor can they resist them except by contrary forms. But no forms of mixed bodies are inimical to the primary implanted earth-nature, although some often do not agree[[169]] with one another. But in the case of all those substances which have a material cause for their inclining (as amber,
jet, sulphur), their action is impeded by the interposition of a body (as paper, leaves, glass, or the like) when that way is impeded and obstructed, so that that which exhales[[170]] cannot reach the corpuscle to be allured. Terrestrial and magnetick coition and motion, when corporeal impediments are interposed, is demonstrated also by the efficiencies of other chief bodies due to their primary form. The moon (more than all the stars) agrees with internal parts of the earth on account of its nearness and similarity in form. The moon produces the movements of the waters and the tides of the sea; twice it fills up the shores and empties them whilst it moves from a certain definite point in the sky back to the same point in a daily revolution. This motion of the waters is incited and the seas rise and fall no less when the moon is below the horizon and in the lowest part of the heavens, than if it had been raised at a height above the horizon. So the whole mass of the earth interposed[[171]] does not resist the action of the moon, when it is below the earth; but the seas bordering on our shores, in certain positions of the sky when it is below the horizon, are kept in motion, and likewise stirred by its power (though they are not struck by its rays nor illuminated by its light), rise, come up with great force, and recede. But about the reason of the tides anon[[172]]; here let it suffice to have merely touched the threshold of the question. In like manner nothing on the earth can be hidden from the magnetick disposition of the earth or of the stone, and all magnetical bodies are reduced to order by the dominant form of the earth, and loadstone and iron show sympathy with a loadstone though solid bodies be interposed.
[CHAP. XVII].
On the Iron Cap of a Loadstone, with which
it is armed at the pole (for the sake of the
virtue) and on the efficacy of the same.
[CHAP. XVIII].
An armed Loadstone does not endow an
excited piece of Iron with greater vigour
than an unarmed.
[CHAP. XIX].
Union with an armed Loadstone is stronger;
hence greater weights are raised; but the
coition is not stronger[[176]], but
generally weaker.
[CHAP. XX].
*
An armed Loadstone raises an armed Loadstone,
which also attracts a third; which likewise
happens, though the virtue in the first
be somewhat small.
[CHAP. XXI].
*
If Paper or any other Medium be interposed,
an armed loadstone raises no more than an
unarmed one.
[CHAP. XXII].
*
That an armed Loadstone draws Iron no more than an
unarmed one: And that an armed one is more strongly united
to iron is shown by means of an armed loadstone
and a polished cylinder of iron.
Armed loadstones of diverse weights, of the same ore vigour * and form, cling and hang to pieces of iron of a convenient size and proportionate figure with an equal proportion of strength. The same is apparent in the case of unarmed stones. A suitable piece * of iron being applied to the lower part of a loadstone, which is * hanging from a magnetick body, excites its vigour, so that the loadstone hangs on more firmly. For a pendent loadstone clings
more firmly to a magnetick body joined to it above with a hanging piece of iron added to it, than when lead or any other non-magnetick body is hung on.
A loadstone, whether armed or unarmed, * joined by its proper pole to the pole of another loadstone, armed or unarmed, makes the loadstone raise a greater weight by the opposite end[[177]]. A piece of iron also applied to the pole of a magnet produces the same result, namely, that the other pole will carry a greater weight of iron; just as a loadstone with a piece of iron superposed on it (as in this figure) holds up a piece of iron below, which it cannot hold, if the upper one be removed. * Magneticks in conjunction make one magnetick. Wherefore as the mass increases, the magnetick vigour is also augmented.
An armed loadstone, as well as an unarmed * one, runs more readily to a larger piece of iron and combines more firmly with a larger piece than with a lesser one.
[CHAP. XXIII].
Magnetick Force causes motion towards unity,
and binds firmly together bodies which are united.
Iron filings, after being heated for a long time, are attracted by a loadstone, yet not so strongly or from so great a distance as when not heated. A loadstone loses some of its virtue by too great a heat; for its humour is set free, whence its peculiar nature is marred. Likewise also, if iron filings are well burnt in a reverberatory furnace and converted into saffron of Mars, they are not attracted by a loadstone; but if they are heated, but not thoroughly burnt, they do stick to a magnet, but less strongly than the filings themselves not acted upon by fire. For the saffron has become totally deformate, but the heated metal acquires a defect from the fire, and the forces in the enfeebled body are less excited by a loadstone; and, the nature of the iron being now ruined, it is not attracted by a loadstone.
[CHAP. XXIIII].
A piece of Iron placed within the Orbe of a
Loadstone hangs suspended in the air, if on account
of some impediment it cannot approach it.
[CHAP. XXV].
Exaltation of the power of the Magnet.
[CHAP. XXVI].
Why there should appear to be a greater love between
iron and loadstone, than between loadstone and loadstone, or
between iron and iron, when close to the loadstone,
within its orbe of virtue.
[CHAP. XXVII].
*
The Centre of the Magnetick Virtues in the earth
is the centre of the earth; and in a terrella
is the centre of the stone.
[CHAP. XXVIII].
A Loadstone attracts magneticks not only to a
fixed point or pole, but to every part of a
terrella save the æquinoctial zone.
[CHAP. XXIX].
On Variety of Strength due to Quantity
or Mass.
[CHAP. XXX].
The Shape and Mass of the Iron are of most
importance in coition.
[CHAP. XXXI].
On Long and Round Stones.
[CHAP. XXXII].
Certain Problems and Magnetick Experiments about
the Coition, and Separation, and regular Motion
of bodies magnetical.
Also magnetick bodies of iron, if alike in all respects, * come together when excited with similar incitation.
Furthermore, bodies of iron not excited by a * loadstone, if they are alike and not weighed down by their bulk, move towards one another with equal motion.
Two loadstones, disposed on the surface of some water in
suitable skiffs, if they are drawn up suitably within their orbes of virtue, incite one another mutually to an embrace. So a proportionate * piece of iron in one skiff hurries with the same speed towards the loadstone as the loadstone itself in its boat strives towards the iron. From their own positions, indeed, they are so borne together, that they are joined and come to rest at length in the middle of the space. Two iron wires magnetically excited, floating in water by means of * suitable pieces of cork, strive to touch and mutually strike one another with their corresponding ends, and are conjoined.
Coition is firmer and swifter than repulsion and separation in * equal magnetick substances. That magnetick substances are more sluggishly repelled than they are attracted is manifest in all magnetical experiments in the case of stones floating on water in suitable skiffs; also in the case of iron wires or rods swimming (transfixed through corks) and well excited by a loadstone, and in the case of versoria. This comes about because, though there is one faculty of coition, another of conformation or disposition, repulsion and aversion is caused merely by something disposing; on the other hand, the coming together is by a mutual alluring to contact and a disposing, that is, by a double vigour.
A disponent vigour is often only the precursor of coition, in order that the bodies may stand conveniently for one another before conjunction; wherefore also they are turned round to the corresponding ends, if they can [not][[181]] reach them through the hindrances.
If a loadstone be divided through a meridian into two equal parts, the separate parts mutually repel one another, the poles being * placed directly opposite one another at a convenient and equal distance. They repel one another also with a greater velocity than when pole is put opposite pole incongruously. Just as the part B of the loadstone, placed almost opposite the part A, repels it floating in its skiff, because D turns away from F, and E from C; but if B is exactly joined with A again, they agree and become one body
magnetical; but in proximity they raise enmities. But if one part of the stone is turned round, so that C faces D and F faces E, then A pursues B within its orbe until they are united.
The Southern parts of the stone avoid the Southern parts, and the Northern parts the Northern. Nevertheless, if by force you move up the Southern cusp of a piece of iron too near the Southern part of the stone, the cusp is seized and both are linked together in friendly embraces: because it immediately reverses the implanted verticity of the iron, and it is changed by the presence of the more powerful stone, which is more constant in its forces than the iron. For they come together according to their nature, if by reversal and mutation true conformity is produced, and just coition, as also regular direction. Loadstones of the same shape, size, and vigour, attract one another mutually with like efficacy, and in the opposite position repel one another mutually with a like vigour.
Iron rods not touched, though alike and equal, do yet often act * upon one another with different forces; because as the reasons of their acquired verticity, also of their stability and vigour, are different, so the more strongly they are excited, the more vigorously do they incite.
Pieces of iron excited by one and the same pole mutually repel * one another by those ends at which they were excited; then also the opposite ends to those in these iron pieces raise enmities one to another.
In versoria whose cusps have been rubbed, but not their cross-ends, * the crosses mutually repel one another, but weakly and in proportion to their length.
In like versoria the cusps, having been touched by the same * pole of the loadstone, attract the cross-ends with equal strength.
In a somewhat long versorium the cross-end is attracted rather * weakly by the cusp of a shorter iron versorium; the cross of the shorter more strongly by the cusp of the longer, because the cross of the longer versorium has a weak verticity, but the cusp has a stronger.
The cusp of a longer versorium drives away the cusp of a * shorter one more vehemently than the cusp of the shorter the cusp of the longer, if the one is free upon a pin, and the other is held in the hand; for though both were equally excited by the same loadstone, yet the longer one is stronger at its cusp on account of its greater mass.
The Southern end of an iron rod which is not excited attracts * the Northern, and the Northern the Southern; moreover, also the Southern parts repel the Southern, and the Northern the Northern.
If magnetick substances are divided or in any way broken in pieces, each part has a Northern and a Southern end.
A versorium is moved as far off by a loadstone when an obstacle * is put in the way, as through air and an open medium.
Rods rubbed upon the pole of a stone strive after the same pole * and follow it. Therefore Baptista Porta errs when he says, chapter 40[[182]], "If you put that part to it from which it received its force, it will not endure it, but drives it from it, and draws to it the contrary and opposite part."
The principles of turning round and inclining are the same in the case of loadstone to loadstone, of loadstone to iron, of iron also to iron.
When magnetick substances which have been separated by force and dissected into parts flow together into a true union and are suitably connected, the body becomes one, and one united virtue, nor have they diverse ends.
The separate parts assume two opposite poles, if the division has * not been made along a parallel: if the division has been made along a parallel, they are able to retain one pole in the same site as before.
Pieces of iron which have been rubbed and excited by a loadstone are more surely and swiftly seized by a loadstone at fitting ends than such as have not been rubbed.
If a spike is set up on the pole of a loadstone, a spike or style * of iron placed on the upper end is strongly cemented to it, and draws away the erect spike from the terrella when motion is made.
If to the lower end of the erect spike the end of another spike * is applied, it does not cohære with it, nor do they unite together.
As a rod of iron draws away a piece of iron from a terrella, so is it also with a minute loadstone and a lesser terrella, though weaker in strength.
The piece of iron C comes into conjunction with the terrella A, and the vigour in it is magnetically exalted and excited, both in the adjoining end and in the other also which is turned away through
its conjunction with the terrella. The end that is turned away also conceives vigour from the loadstone B; likewise the pole D of that loadstone is powerful on account of its suitable aspect and the nearness of the pole E of the terrella. Several causes therefore concur why the piece of iron C should cleave to the terrella B, to which it is joined more firmly than to the terrella A; the vigour excited in the rod, the vigour also excited in the stone B, and the strength implanted in B concur; therefore D is more firmly cemented magnetically with C than E with C.
But if you were to turn the vertex F round to the iron C, C would not adhære to F as formerly to D; for stones so arranged being within the orbe of virtue are placed contrary to natural order; wherefore F does not receive power from E.
Two loadstones or excited pieces of iron, duly cohæring, fly * asunder on the approach of another more powerful loadstone or magnetized piece of iron. Because the new-comer repels the other with its opposing face, and dominates it, and ends the relationship of the two which were formerly joined. So the forces of the other are lessened and succumb; but if it conveniently could, being diverted of its association with the weaker, and rolling round, it would turn about to the stronger. Wherefore also magnetick bodies suspended in the air fall when a loadstone is brought near them with an opposing face, not (as Baptista Porta teaches) because the faculty of both those which were joined before grows faint and torpid, for no face can be hostile to both the ends which cohære, but to one only; and when the stronger loadstone, coming fresh with opposing face, impels this further from it, it is put to flight by the friendly reception of the former.
[CHAP. XXXIII].
On the Varying Ratio of Strength, and of the Motion
of coition, within the orbe of virtue.
The orbe of virtue extends more widely than the orbe of motion of any magnetick; for the magnetick is affected at its extremity, even if it is not moved with local motion, which effect is produced
by the loadstone being brought nearer. A small versorium also is turned when a good distance off, even if at the same distance it would not flow towards the loadstone, though free and disengaged from impediment.
The swiftness of the motion of a magnetick body to a loadstone is dependent on either the power of the loadstone, on its mass, on its shape, on the medium, or on its distance within the magnetick orbe.
A magnetick moves more quickly towards a more powerful * stone than towards a sluggish one in proportion to the strength, and [as appears] by a comparison of the loadstones together. A lesser mass of iron also is carried more quickly towards a loadstone, just as also one that is a little longer in shape. The swiftness of magnetick motion towards a loadstone is changed by reason of the medium; for bodies are moved more quickly in air than in water, and in clear air than in air that is thick and cloudy.
By reason of the distance, the motion is quicker in the case of bodies near together than when they are far off. At the limits of the orbe of virtue of a terrella a magnetick is moved feebly and slowly. At very short distances close to the terrella the moving impetus is greatest.
A loadstone which in the outmost part of its orbe of virtue * hardly moves a versorium when one foot removed from it, doth, if a long piece of iron is joined to it, attract and repel the versorium more strongly with its opposite poles when even three feet distant. The result is the same whether the loadstone is armed or unarmed. Let the iron be a suitable piece of the thickness of the little finger.
For the vigour of the loadstone excites verticity in the iron and proceeds in the iron and through the iron much further than it extends through the air.
The vigour proceeds even through several pieces of iron (joined * to one another end to end), not so regularly, however, as through one continuous solid.
Dust of steel placed upon paper rises up when a loadstone is moved near above it in a sort of steely hairiness; but if the loadstone is placed below, such a hairiness is likewise raised.
Steel dust (when the pole of a loadstone is placed near) is cemented * into one body; but when it desires coition with the loadstone, the mass is split and it rises in conglomerated parts.
But if there is a loadstone beneath the paper, the mass is split in the same way and many portions result, each of which consists of very many parts, and remains cemented together, as individual bodies. Whilst the lower parts of these pursue greedily the pole of the loadstone placed directly beneath, even they also are raised up as magnetick wholes, just as a small iron wire of the length of a grain or two grains of barley is raised up, both when the loadstone is moved near both beneath and above.
[CHAP. XXXIIII].
Why a Loadstone should be stronger in its poles
in a different ratio; as well in the Northern
regions as in the Southern.
Let a b be the earth or a somewhat large terrella, also a b a smaller terrella. There is set up above the Northern pole of the smaller terrella a spike larger than the pole b of the smaller terrella can raise, if it is turned round to the higher parts. And the pole a of the
smaller terrella has its strength from the larger, declining from the Zenith to the plane of the horizon or to the level. But now, if, * leaving the terrella disposed in the same way, you bring a piece of iron to the lower and Southern pole, it will attract and retain a greater weight than the Boreal pole could, if it were turned round to the lower parts. Which thing is demonstrated thus: let A be the earth or a terrella; E the Boreal pole or some place in some great latitude; B a rather large terrella above the earth or a smaller terrella on the top of a larger; D its Southern pole. It is manifest that D (the Southern pole) attracts a larger piece of iron, C, than F (the Boreal pole) will be able to, if it is turned round downward to the position D, toward the earth or the terrella in the Northern regions.
Magneticks acquire strength through magneticks, if they are properly placed according to their nature, in near neighbourhood and within the orbe of virtue. Wherefore when a terrella is placed on the earth or on a terrella, so that its Southern pole is turned round toward the Northern pole, its Northern pole, however, turned away from the Northern pole, the influence and strength of
its poles are increased. And so the Northern pole of a terrella in such a position lifts up a larger spike than the Southern pole, if the Southern pole is turned away. Similarly the Southern pole in a proper and natural arrangement, acquiring strength from the earth or from a larger terrella, attracts and retains larger rods of iron. In * the other part of the terrestrial globe toward the South, as also in the Austral portion of a terrella, the reasoning is converse; for the Southern pole of the terrella being turned away is more robust, as also the Northern pole when turned round. The more a region on the earth is distant from the æquinoctial (as also in a larger terrella), the larger is the accession of strength perceived; near the æquator, indeed, the difference is small, but on the æquator itself null; at the poles finally it is greatest.
[CHAP. XXXV].
On a Perpetual Motion Machine, mentioned
by authors, by means of the attraction
of a loadstone.
[CHAP. XXXVI].
How a more robust Loadstone may be
recognized.
[CHAP. XXXVII].
Use of a Loadstone as it affects
iron.
[CHAP. XXXVIII].
On Cases of Attraction in other Bodies.
[CHAP. XXXIX].
On Bodies which mutually repel one another.
BOOK THIRD.
[CHAP. I].
ON DIRECTION.
[CHAP. II].
The Directive or Versorial Virtue (which we call
verticity): what it is, how it exists in the loadstone;
and in what way it is acquired when innate.
[CHAP. III].
How Iron acquires Verticity through
a Loadstone, and how that verticity
is lost and changed.
[CHAP. IIII].
Why Iron touched by a Loadstone acquires an opposite
verticity, and why iron touched by the true Northern side of a stone
turns to the North of the earth, by the true Southern side
to the South; and does not turn to the South when rubbed
by the Northern point of the stone, and when by
the Southern to the North, as all who have
written on the loadstone have
falsely supposed.
[CHAP. V].
On the Touching of pieces of Iron
of divers shapes.
[CHAP. VI].
What seems an Opposing Motion in Magneticks
is a proper motion toward unity.
[CHAP. VII].
A determined Verticity and a disponent Faculty are what
arrange magneticks, not a force, attracting or pulling them
together, nor merely strongish coition or unition.
[CHAP. VIII].
Of Discords between pieces of Iron upon the same pole
of a loadstone, and how they can agree and
stand joined together.
Likewise if those lighter pieces of iron or iron wires be suspended, hanging, as A and B, from a very fine silk thread, not twisted * but braided, distant from the stone the length of a single barleycorn, then the opposing ends, A and B, being situated within the orbe of virtue above the pole, keep a little away from one another for the same reason; except when they are very near the pole of the stone C, the stone then attracting them more strongly toward one end.
[CHAP. IX].
Figures illustrating direction and showing varieties
of rotations.
Figures illustrating magnetick directions in a right sphere[[208]] of stone, and in the right sphere of the earth, as well as the polar directions to the perpendicular of the poles. All these cusps have been touched by the pole A; all the cusps are turned toward A, excepting that one which is repelled by B.
Figures illustrating horizontal directions above the body of a loadstone. All the cusps that have been made southern by rubbing on the boreal pole, or some place round the northern pole A, turn toward the pole A, and turn away from the southern pole B, toward which all the crosses look. I call the direction horizontal, because it is arranged along the plane of the horizon; for nautical and * horological instruments are so constructed that the iron hangs or is supported in æquilibrium on the point of a sharp pin, which prevents the dipping of the versorium, about which we intend to speak later. And in this way it is of the greatest use to man, indicating and distinguishing all the points of the horizon and the winds. Otherwise on every oblique sphere (whether of stone or the earth) versoria and all magnetick substances would have a dip by their own nature below the horizon; and at the poles the directions would be perpendicular, which appears in our discussion On Declination.
A round stone (or terrella) cut in two at the æquator; and all the cusps have been touched by the pole A. The points at the centre of the earth, and between the two parts of the terrella which has been cut in two through the plane of the æquator,
are directed as in the present[[209]] diagram. This would also happen in the same way if the division of the stone were through the plane of a tropick, and the mutual separation of the divided parts and the interval between them were the same as before, when the loadstone was divided through the plane of the æquator, and the parts separated. For the cusps are repelled by C, are attracted by D; and the versoria are parallel, the poles or the verticity in both ends mutually requiring it.
Half a terrella by itself and its directions, unlike the directions * of the two parts close to one another as shown in the figure above. All the cusps have been touched by A; all the crosses below except the middle one tend toward the loadstone, not straight, but obliquely; because the pole is in the middle of the plane which before was the plane of the æquator. All cusps touched by places distant from the pole move toward the pole (exactly the same as if they had been rubbed upon the pole itself), not toward the place where they were rubbed, wherever that may have been in the undivided stone in some latitude between the pole and the æquator. And for this reason there are only two distinctions of regions, northern and southern, in the terrella, just
as in the general terrestrial globe, and there is no eastern nor western place; nor are there any eastern or western regions, rightly speaking; but they are names used in respect of one another toward the eastern or western part of the sky. Wherefore it does not appear that Ptolemy did rightly in his Quadripartitum, making eastern and western districts and provinces, with which he improperly connects the planets, whom the common crowd of philosophizers and the superstitious soothsayers follow.
[CHAP. X].
On Mutation of Verticity and of Magnetick
Properties, or on alteration in the power
excited by a loadstone.
[CHAP. XI].
On the Rubbing of a piece of Iron on a Loadstone
in places midway between the poles, and upon
the æquinoctial of a terrella.
[CHAP. XII].
In what way Verticity exists in any Iron that has
been smelted though not excited by a lodestone.
[CHAP. XIII].
Why no other Body, excepting a magnetick, is imbued
with verticity by being rubbed on a loadstone; and why no
body is able to instil and excite that virtue,
unless it be a magnetick.
[CHAP. XIIII].
The Placing of a Loadstone above or below a magnetick
body suspended in æquilibrium changes neither the power
nor the verticity of the magnetick body.
[CHAP. XV].
The Poles, Æquator, Centre in an entire Loadstone
remain and continue steady; by diminution and
separation of some part they vary and
acquire other positions.
[CHAP. XVI].
If the Southern Portion of a Stone be lessened,
something is also taken away from the power
of the Northern Portion.
[CHAP. XVII].
On the Use and Excellence of Versoria: and how iron
versoria used as pointers in sun-dials, and the fine needles
of the mariners' compass, are to be rubbed, that
they may acquire stronger verticity.
When iron is to be quickened by the stone, let it be clean and bright, disfigured by no rust or dirt, and of the best steel[[216]]. Let the stone itself be wiped dry, and let it not be damp with any moisture, but let it be filed gently with some smooth piece of iron. But the hitting of the stone with a hammer is of no advantage. By these means let their bare surfaces be joined, and let them be rubbed, so that they may come together more firmly; not so that the material substance of the stone being joined to the iron may cleave to it, but they are rubbed gently together with friction, and (useless parts being rubbed off) they are intimately united; whence a more notable
BOOK FOURTH.
[CHAP. I].
ON VARIATION.
[CHAP. II].
That the variation is caused by the inæquality of the
projecting parts of the earth.
A terrella uneven in surface.
It is shown by a small spike placed over a terrella or by a small versorium; for they are turned by the terrella toward the mass that stands out and toward the large eminences. In the same way on the earth the verticity is perturbed by great continents, which are mostly elevated above the depths of the seas and make the versorium deviate sometimes from the right tracks (that is, from the true meridians). On a terrella it is thus demonstrated: the end of the versorium A is not directed straight to the pole P, if there be a large protuberance B on the terrella; so also the cusp C deviates from the pole because of the eminence F. In the middle between the two eminences the versorium G collimates to the true pole because, being at equal distances from the two eminences B and F, it turns aside to neither, but observes the true meridian, especially when the protuberances are of equal vigour. But the versorium N on the other side varies from the pole M toward the eminences H, and is not held back, stopped, or restrained by the small eminence O on the terrella (as it were, some island of land in the ocean). L, however, being unimpeded, is directed to the pole M. The variation is demonstrated in another way on a terrella, just as on the earth. Let A be the pole of the earth, B the equator, C the parallel circle of latitude of 30 degrees, D a great eminence spread out toward the pole, E another eminence spread out from the pole toward the æquator. It is manifest that in the middle of D the versorium F
does not vary; while G is very greatly deflected: but H very little, because it is further removed from D. Similarly also the versorium I placed directly toward E does not deviate from the pole: but L and M turn themselves away from the pole A toward the eminence E.
[CHAP. III].
The variation in any one place
is constant.
[CHAP. IIII].
The arc of variation is not changed equally
in proportion to the distance of places.
[CHAP. V].
An island in Ocean does not change the variation[[223]], as
neither do mines of loadstone.
[CHAP. VI].
That variation and direction arise from the disponent
power of the earth, and from the natural magnetick tendency
to rotation, not from attraction, or from coition,
or from other occult cause.
Let there be a round vessel filled with water: in the middle of the surface of the water place a slender iron wire on a perfectly round cork, so that it may just float in æquilibrium on the water; let the wire be previously touched by a magnet, so that it may more readily show the point of variation, the point D as it were: and let it remain on the surface for some time. It is demonstrable that the wire together with the cork is not moved to the side D of the vessel: which it would do if an attraction came to the iron wire by D: and the cork would be moved out of its place. This assertion of the Englishman, Robert Norman, is plausible and appears to do away with attraction because the iron remains on the water not moving about, as well in a direction toward the pole itself (if the direction be true) as in a variation or altered direction; and it is moved about its own centre without any transference to the edge of the vessel. But direction does not arise from attraction, but from the disposing and turning power which exists in the whole earth, not in the pole or in some other attracting part of the stone, or in any mass rising above the periphery of the true circle so that a
[CHAP. VII].
Why the variation from that lateral cause is not
greater than has hitherto been observed, having been
rarely seen to reach two points of the mariners'
compass, except near the pole.
This is demonstrated by a long loadstone the poles of which are in the ends A B; let C D be the middle line and the æquinoctial, and let G H and E F (the lines) be for meridians on which versoria are disposed, the variations of which are greater at a greater distance from the æquator. But the inequalities of the maritime parts of the habitable earth, the enormous promontories, the very wide gulfs, the mountainous and more elevated regions, render the variations more unequal, or sudden, or more obscure; and, moreover, less certain and more inconstant in the higher latitude.
[CHAP. VIII].
On the construction of the common mariners'
compass[[225]], and on the diversity of the compasses
of different nations.
[CHAP. IX].
Whether the terrestrial longitude can be found from
the variation.
[CHAP. X].
Why in various places near the pole the variations
are much more ample than in a
lower latitude.
[CHAP. XI].
Cardan's error when he seeks the distance of the
centre of the earth from the centre of the cosmos by the
motion of the stone of Hercules; in his
book 5, On Proportions.
[CHAP. XII].
On the finding of the amount of variation: how great
is the arc of the Horizon from its arctick or antarctick
intersection of the meridian, to the point
respective of the magnetick needle.
On land the variation is found in another way which is easier, and because of the larger size of the instrument, more accurate. Let a thick squared board be made of some suitable wood, the surface of which is two feet in length and sixteen inches in width: describe upon it some semicircles as in the following figure, only more in number. In the centre let a brass style be reared perpendicularly: let there be also a movable pointer reaching from the centre to the outmost semicircle, and a magnetick versorium in a cavity covered over with glass: then let the board be exactly adjusted to the level of the Horizon by the plane instrument with its perpendicular; and turn the lily of the instrument toward the north, so that the versorium may rest truly over the middle line of the cavity, which looks toward the point of variation on on the Horizon. Then at some convenient hour in the morning (eight or nine for instance) observe the apex of the shadow thrown by the style when it reaches the nearest semicircle and mark the place of the apex of this shadow with chalk or ink: then bring round the movable index to that mark, and observe the degree on the Horizon numbered from the lily, which the index shows. In the afternoon see when the end of the shadow shall again reach the periphery of the same semicircle, and, bringing the index to the apex of the shadow, seek for the degree on the other side of the lily. From the difference of the degrees becomes known
[[228]]Let an instrument be made of the form of a true and meridional mariners' compass of at least one foot in diameter (with a versorium which is either nude or provided with a cardboard circle): let the limb be divided into four quadrants, and each quadrant into 90 degrees. The movable compass-box (as is usual in the nautical instrument) is to be balanced below by a heavy weight of sixteen pounds. On the margin of the suspended compass-box, where opposite quadrants begin, let a half-ring rising in an angular frame in the middle be raised (with the feet of the half-ring fixed on either side in holes in the margin) so that the top of the frame may be perpendicular to the plane of the compass; on its top let a rule sixteen digits in length be fastened at its middle on a joint like a balance beam, so that it may move, as it were, about a central axis. At the ends of the rule there are small plates with holes,
Bright and conspicuous stars[[230]] which are
not far distant from the equator which it
will be useful to observe at their rising and
setting: the amplitude at the Horizon on
rising being known from the altitude of the
pole and from the declination of the stars, by
means of a globe, or tables, or an instrument
whence the variation is perceived by
technical calculation.
| Right Ascension | Declination | |
| Oculus Tauri | 62° 55' | 15° 53' N |
| Sinister humerus Orionis | 72° 24' | 4° 5' N |
| Dexter humerus Orionis | 83° 30' | 6° 19' N |
| Præcedens in cingulo Orionis | 77° 46' | 1° 16' S |
| Canis major | 97° 10' | 15° 55' S |
| Canis minor | 109° 41' | 5° 55' N |
| Lucida Hydræ | 137° 10' | 5° 3' S |
| Caput Geminorum australe | 110° 21' | 28° 30' N |
| Caput boreale | 107° 4' | 32° 10' N |
| Cor Leonis | 146° 8' | 13° 47' N |
| Cauda Leonis | 171° 38' | 16° 30' N |
| Spica Virginis | 195° 44' | 8° 34' S |
| Arcturus | 29° 13' | 21° 54' N |
| Cor Aquilæ | 291° 56' | 7° 35' N |
An instrument for finding the amplitude at rising on the horizon.
Describe the circumference of a circle and let it be divided into quadrants by two diameters intersecting each other at right angles at its centre. One of these will represent the æquinoctial circle, the other the axis of the world. Let each of these quadrants be divided (in the accustomed way) into 90 degrees; on every fifth or tenth of which at each end of each diameter and on each side let marks (showing the numbers) be inscribed on the two limbs or margins made for that purpose outside the circumference. Then from each degree straight lines are drawn parallel to the æquator. You will then prepare a rule or alhidade equal to the diameter of that circle and divided throughout into the same parts into which the diameter of the circle representing the axis of the world is divided. Let there be left a small appendage attached to the middle of the rule, by which the middle of the fiducial line itself of the rule may be connected with the centre of the circle: but to every fifth or tenth part of that rule let numbers be attached proceeding from the centre toward each side. This circle represents the plane of the meridian; its centre the actual point of east or west, i.e., the common intersection of the horizon and æquator; all those lines æquidistant from the æquator denote the parallels of the sun and stars; the fiducial line of the rule or alhidade represents the horizon; and its parts signify the degrees of the horizon, beginning from the point of setting or of rising.
Therefore if the fiducial line of the rule be applied to the given latitude of the place reckoned from either end of that diameter which represents the axis of the world; and if further the given declination of the sun or of some star from the æquator (less than the complement of the latitude of the place) be found on the limb of the instrument; then the intersection of the parallel drawn from that point of the declination with the horizon, or with the fiducial line of the rule or alhidade, will indicate for the given latitude of the place the amplitude at rising of the given star or the sun.
[CHAP. XIII].
The observations of variation by seamen vary, for the
most part, and are uncertain: partly from error and inexperience,
and the imperfections of the instruments; and partly
from the sea being seldom so calm that the
shadows or lights can remain quite
steady on the instruments.
[CHAP. XIIII].
On the variation under the æquinoctial line,
and near it.
[CHAP. XV].
The variation of the magnetick needle in the great
Æthiopick and American sea, beyond
the æquator.
[CHAP. XVI].
On the variation in Nova Zembla.
[CHAP. XVII].
Variation in the Pacifick Ocean.
[CHAP. XVIII].
On the variation in the Mediterranean Sea.
[CHAP. XIX].
The variation in the interior of large
Continents.
[CHAP. XX].
Variation in the Eastern Ocean.
[CHAP. XXI].
How the deviation of the versorium is augmented and
diminished by reason of the distance of places.
The ratio of the arcs on a parallel circle, when a versorium is moved toward continents which extend to the pole, corresponds with the degrees of variation. Let A be the pole; B the eminences of the dominant lands; at C there is no variation caused by B, for it is too far away; at D the variation is very great because the versorium is allured or turned by the whole earth toward the eminent
land B; and moreover it is not hindered, or restrained or brought back to the pole by the verticity of the earth; but, tending of its own nature to the pole, it is nevertheless deflected from it by reason of the site, or position, and convenient distance of the dominant and high lands.
Now from C toward D the variation increases; the versorium, however, does not deviate so rapidly in the first spaces as near D: for more miles are traversed on the parallel circle C D, near C, in order that the versorium may deviate by one degree from the pole A, than near D. So also in order that the variation may be diminished from D toward E more miles are required near D than near E. Thus the deviations become equal in unequal courses, whether the variation be increasing or decreasing; and yet the variation decreases by lesser intervals than it increases. There intervene, however, many other causes which perturb this proportion.
BOOK FIFTH.
[CHAP. I].
ON DECLINATION.
Instrument of the Declination
Now how much it dips at every horizon may be ascertained in the first place by a contrivance, which, however, is not so easily made as is that in dials for measuring time, in which the needle turns to the points of the horizon, or in the mariners' compass. From a plank of wood let a smooth and circular instrument be prepared, at least six digits in diameter, and affix this to the side of a square pillar, which stands upright on a wooden base. Divide the periphery of this instrument into 4 quadrants: then each quadrant into 90 degrees. At the centre of the instrument let there be placed a brass peg, at the centre of the end of which let there be a small hollow, well polished. To this wooden instrument let a brass circle or ring be fixed, about two digits in width, with a thin plate or flat rod of the same metal, representing the horizon, fixed across it, through the middle of the circle. In the middle of the horizontal rod let there be another hollow, which shall be exactly opposite the centre of the instrument, where the former hollow was made. Afterward let a needle be fashioned out of steel, as versoria are accustomed to be made. Divide this at right angles by a thin iron axis (like a cross) through the very middle and centre of the wire and the cross-piece. Let this dipping-needle be hung (with the ends of the cross resting in the aforesaid holes) so that it can move freely and evenly on its axis in the most perfect æquilibrium, so accurately that it turns away from no one point or degree marked on the circumference more than from another, but that it can rest quite easily at any. Let it be fixed upright to the front part of the pillar, whilst at the edge of the base is a small versorium to show direction. Afterward touch the iron, suspended by this ingenious method, on both ends with the opposite ends of a loadstone, according to the scientifick method, but rather carefully, lest the needle be twisted in any way; for unless you prepare everything very skilfully and cleverly, you will secure no result. Then let another brass ring be prepared, a little larger, so as to contain the former one; and let a glass or a very thin plate of mica be fitted to one side of it. When this is put over the former ring, the whole space within remains inclosed, and the versorium is not interfered with by dust or winds. Dispose the instrument, thus completed, perpendicularly on its base, and with the small versorium horizontal, in such a way that, while standing perpendicularly, it may be directed toward the exact magnetical point respective. Then the end of the needle which looks toward the north dips below the horizon in northern regions, whilst in southern regions the end of the needle which looks toward the south tends toward the centre of the earth, in a certain proportion (to be explained afterward) to the latitude of the district in question, from the æquator on either side. The needle, however, must be rubbed on
a powerful loadstone; otherwise it does not dip to the true point, or else it goes past it, and does not always rest in it. A larger instrument may also be used, whose diameter may be 10 or 12 digits; but in such an instrument more care is needed to balance the versorium truly. Care must be taken that the needle be of steel; also that it be straight; likewise that both ends of the cross-piece be sharp and fixed at right angles to the needle, and that the cross-piece pass through the centre of the needle. As in other magnetical motions there is an exact agreement between the earth and the stone, and a correspondence manifestly apparent to our senses by means of our experiments; so in this declination there is a clear and evident concordance of the terrestrial globe with the loadstone. Of this motion, so important and so long unknown to all men, the following is the sure and true cause. A magnet-stone is moved and turned round until one of its poles being impelled toward the north comes to rest toward a definite point of the horizon. [[231]]This pole, which settles toward the north (as appears from the preceding rules and demonstrations), is the southern, not the boreal; though all before us deemed it to be the boreal, on account of its turning to that point of the horizon. A wire or versorium touched on this pole of the stone turns to the south, and is made into a boreal pole, because it was touched by the southern terminal of the stone. So if the cusp of a versorium be excited in a similar manner, it will be directed toward the southern pole of the earth, and will adjust itself also to it; but the cross (the other end) will be southern, and will turn to the north of the earth (the earth itself being the cause of its motion); for so direction is produced from the disposition of the stone or of the excited iron, and from the verticity of the earth. But declination takes place when a magnetick is turned round toward the body of the earth, with its southern end toward the north, at some latitude away from the æquator. For this is certain and constant, that exactly under the cœlestial æquator, or rather over the æquator of the terrestrial globe, there is no declination of a loadstone or of iron; but in whatever way the iron has been excited or rubbed, it settles in the declination instrument precisely along the plane of the horizon, if it were properly balanced before. Now this occurs thus because, when the magnetick body is at an equal distance from either pole, it dips toward neither by its own versatory nature, but remains evenly directed to the level of the horizon, as if it were resting on a pin or floating free and unhindered on water. But when the magnetick substance is at some latitude away from the æquator, or when either pole of the earth is raised (I do not say raised above the visible horizon, as the commonly imagined pole of the revolving universe in the sky, but above the horizon or its centre, or its proper diameter, æquidistant from the plane of the visible horizon, which is the true elevation of the terrestrial pole),
[CHAP. II].
Diagram of declinations of the magnetick needle, when
excited, in the various portions of the sphere, and horizons
of the earth, in which there is no variation
of the declination.
Here we have the level position of the magnetick needle on the æquator of the earth and the stone, at A and B, and its perpendicular position at C, D, the poles; whilst at the places midway between, at a distance of 45 degrees, the crosses of the needle dip toward the south, but the cusps just as much toward the north. Of which thing the reason will become clear from the demonstrations that follow.
* Diagram of the rotation and declination of a terrella
conforming to the globe of the earth, for a
latitude of 50 degrees north.
A is the boreal pole of the earth or of a rather large terrella, B the southern, C a smaller terrella, E the southern pole of the smaller terrella, dipping in the northern regions[[233]]. The centre C is placed on the surface of the larger terrella, because the smaller terrella shows some variation on account of the length of the axis; inappreciable, however, on the earth. Just as a magnetick needle dips in a regional latitude of 50 degrees, so also the axis of a stone (of a spherical stone, of course) is depressed below the horizon, and its natural austral pole falls, and its boreal pole is raised on the
south toward the Zenith. In the same way also a circular disc of iron behaves, which has been carefully touched at opposite parts on its circumference; but the magnetical experiments are less clear on account of the feebler forces in round pieces of iron.
Variety in the declinations of iron spikes at various latitudes of a terrella.
The declination of a magnetick needle above a terrella is shown by means of several equal iron wires, of the length of a barleycorn, arranged along a meridian. The wires on the æquator are directed by the virtue of the stone toward the poles, and lie down upon its body along the plane of its horizon. The nearer they are brought to the poles, the more they are raised up by their versatory nature. At the poles themselves they point perpendicularly toward the very centre. But iron spikes, if they are of more than a due length, are not raised straight up except on a vigorous stone.
[CHAP. III].
*
An indicatory instrument, showing by the virtue of a
stone the degrees of declination from the horizon
of each several latitude.
Description of the Instrument, and its use.
[CHAP. IIII].
Concerning the length of a versorium convenient
for declination on a terrella.
[CHAP. V].
That declination does not arise from the attraction
of the loadstone, but from a disposing and
rotating influence.
[CHAP. VI].
On the proportion of declination to latitude[[236]], and
the cause of it.
[CHAP. VII].
Explanation of the diagram of the rotation of
a magnetick needle.
[CHAP. VIII].
Diagram of the rotation of a magnetick needle,
indicating magnetical declination in all latitudes, and
from the rotation and declination, the
latitude itself.
To ascertain the elevation of the pole or the latitude of a place anywhere
in the world, by means of the following diagram, turned into
a magnetick instrument, without the help of the cœlestial
bodies, sun, planets, or fixed stars, in fog
and darkness.
We may see how far from unproductive magnetick philosophy is, how agreeable, how helpful, how divine! Sailors when tossed about on the waves with continuous cloudy weather, and unable by means of the cœlestial luminaries to learn anything about the place or the region in which they are, with a very slight effort and with a small instrument are comforted, and learn the latitude of the place. With a declination instrument the degree of declination of the magnetick needle below the horizon is observed; that degree is noted on the inner arc of the quadrant, and the quadrant is turned round about the centre of the instrument until that degree on the quadrant touches the spiral line; then in the open space B at the centre of the quadrant the latitude of the region on
the circumference of the globe is discerned by means of the fiducial line A B. Let the diagram be fixed on a suitable flat board, and let the centre of the corner A of the quadrant be fastened to the centre of it, so that the quadrant may rotate on that centre. But it must be understood that there is also in certain places a variation in the declination on account of causes already mentioned (though not a large one), which it will be an assistance also to allow for on a likely estimate; and it will be especially helpful to observe this variation in various places, as it seems to present greater difficulty than the variation in direction; but it is easily learnt with a declination instrument, when it dips more or less than the line in the diagram.
To observe magnetick declination at sea.
Set upon our variation instrument a declination instrument; a wooden disc being placed between the round movable
compass and the declination instrument: but first remove the versorium, lest the versorium should interfere with the dipping needle. In this way (though the sea be rough) the compass box will remain upright at the level of the horizon. The stand of the declination instrument must be directed by means of the small versorium at its base, which is set to the point respective of the variation, on the great circle of which (commonly called the magnetick meridian), the plane of the upright box is arranged; thus the declinatorium (by its versatory nature) indicates the degree of declination.
In a declination instrument the magnetick needle, which
in a meridional position dips, if turned
along a parallel hangs perpendicularly.
In a proper position a magnetick needle, while by its rotatory nature conformed to the earth, dips to some certain degree below the horizon on an oblique sphere. But when the plane of the instrument is moved out of the plane of the meridian, the magnetick needle (which tends toward the pole) no longer remains at the degree of its own declination, but inclines more toward the centre; for the force of direction is stronger than that of declination, and all power of declination is taken away, if the plane of the instrument is on a parallel. For then the magnetick needle, because it cannot maintain its due position on account of the axis being placed transversely, faces down perpendicularly to the earth; and it remains only on its own meridian, or on that which is commonly called the magnetick meridian.
[CHAP. IX].
Demonstration of direction, or of variation from the
true direction, at the same time with declination, by
means of only a single motion in water, due
to the disposing and rotating virtue.
[CHAP. X].
On the variation of the declination.
[CHAP. XI].
On the essential magnetick activity sphærically
effused.
Diagram of motions in magnetick orbes.
A B is the axis of the terrella and of the orbes, C D the æquator. On all the orbes, as on the terrella, at the equator the versorium arranges itself along the plane of the horizon; on the axis it everywhere looks perpendicularly toward the centre; in the intermediate spaces E looks toward D; and G looks toward H, not toward F, as the versorium L does on the surface of the terrella. But as is the relation of L to F on the surface of the terella, so is that of G to H on its orbe and of E to D on its orbe; also all the rotations on
the orbes toward the termini of the orbes are such as they are on the surface of the terrella, or toward the termini of its surface. But if in the more remote orbes this fails somewhat at times, it happens on account of the sluggishness of the stone, or on account of the feebler forces due to the too great distance of the orbes from the terrella.
Demonstration.
Set upon the instrumental diagram described farther back [chap. 3] a plate or stiff circle of brass or tin, on which may be described the magnetick orbes, as in the diagram above; and in the middle let a hole be made according to the size of the terrella, so that the plate may lie evenly on the wood about the middle of the terrella on a meridional circle. Then let a small versorium of the length of a barley-corn be placed on any orbe; upon which, when it is moved to various positions on the same circle, it will always pay regard to the dimensions of that orbe, not to those of the stone; as is shown in the diagram of the effused magnetick forms.
While some assign occult and hidden virtues of substances, others a property of matter, as the causes of the wonderful magnetical effects; we have discovered the primary substantive form of globes, not from a conjectural shadow of the truth of reasons variously controverted; but we have laid hold of the true efficient cause, as from many other demonstrations, so also from this most certain diagram of magnetick forces effused by the form. Though this (the form) has not been brought under any of our senses, and on that account is the less perceived by the intellect, it now appears manifest and conspicuous even to the eyes through this essential activity which proceeds from it as light from a lamp. And here it must be noted that a magnetick needle, moved on the top of the earth or of a terrella or of the effused orbes, makes two complete rotations in one circuit of its centre, like some epicycle about its orbit.
[CHAP. XII].
Magnetick force is animate, or imitates life; and in
many things surpasses human life, while this is bound
up in the organick body.
BOOK SIXTH.
[CHAP. I].
ON THE GLOBE OF THE EARTH, THE
great magnet.
[CHAP. II].
The Magnetick axis of the Earth
persists invariable.
[CHAP. III].
On the magnetick diurnal revolution of the Earth's
globe, as a probable assertion against the time-honoured
opinion of a Primum Mobile.
[CHAP. IIII].
That the Earth moves circularly.
So also it would move in any other great circle if it could be free; as in the declination instrument, a circular motion takes place in the meridian (if there were no variation), or, if there should be some variation, in a great circle drawn from the Zenith through the point of variation on the horizon. And that circular motion of the magnet to its own just and natural position shows that the whole Earth is fitted and adapted, and is sufficiently furnished with peculiar forces for diurnal circular motion. I omit what Peter Peregrinus[[248]] constantly affirms, that a terrella suspended above its poles on a meridian moves circularly, making an entire revolution in 24 hours: which, however, it has not happened to ourselves as yet to see; and we even doubt this motion on account of the weight of the stone itself, as well as because the whole Earth, as she is moved of herself, so also is she propelled by other stars: and this does not happen in proportion (as it does in the terrella)
in every part. The Earth is moved by her own primary form and natural desire, for the conservation, perfection, and ordering of its parts, toward things more excellent: and this is more likely than that the fixed stars, those luminous globes, as well as the Wanderers, and the most glorious and divine Sun, which are in no way aided by the Earth, or renewed, or urged by any virtue therein, should circulate aimlessly around the Earth, and that the whole heavenly host should repeat around the Earth courses never ending and of no profit whatever to the stars. The Earth, then, which by some great necessity, even by a virtue innate, evident, and conspicuous, is turned circularly about the Sun, revolves; and by this motion it rejoices in the solar virtues and influences, and is strengthened by its own sure verticity, that it should not rovingly revolve over every region of the heavens. The Sun (the chief agent in nature) as he forwards the courses of the Wanderers, so does he prompt this turning about of the Earth by the diffusion of the virtues of his orbes, and of light. And if the Earth were not made to spin with a diurnal revolution, the Sun would ever hang over some determinate part with constant beams, and by long tarriance would scorch it, and pulverize it, and dissipate it, and the Earth would sustain the deepest wounds; and nothing good would issue forth; it would not vegetate, it would not allow life to animals, and mankind would perish. In other parts, all things would verily be frightful and stark with extreme cold; whence all high places would be very rough, unfruitful, inaccessible, covered with a pall of perpetual shades and eternal night. Since the Earth herself would not choose to endure this so miserable and horrid appearance on both her faces, she, by her magnetick astral genius, revolves in an orbit, that by a perpetual change of light there may be a perpetual alternation of things, heat and cold, risings and settings, day and night, morn and eve, noon and midnight. Thus the Earth seeks and re-seeks the Sun, turns away from him and pursues him, by her own wondrous magnetick virtue. Besides, it is not only from the Sun that evil would impend, if the Earth were to stay still and be deprived of solar benefit; but from the Moon also serious dangers would threaten. For we see how the ocean rises and swells beneath certain known positions of the Moon: And if there were not through the daily rotation of Earth a speedy transit of the Moon, the flowing sea would be driven above its level into certain regions, and many shores would be overwhelmed with huge waves. In order then that Earth may not perish in various ways, and be brought to confusion, she turns herself about by magnetick and primary virtue: and the like motions exist also in the rest of the Wanderers, urged specially by the movement and light of other bodies. For the Moon also turns herself about in a monthly course, to receive in succession the Sun's beams in which she, like the Earth,
rejoices, and is refreshed: nor could she endure them for ever on one particular side without great harm and sure destruction. Thus each one of the moving globes is for its own safety borne in an orbit either in some wider circle, or only by a rotation of its body, or by both together. But it is ridiculous for a man a philosopher to suppose that all the fixed stars and the planets and the still higher heavens revolve to no other purpose, save the advantage of the Earth. It is the Earth, then, that revolves, not the whole heaven, and this motion gives opportunity for the growth and decrease of things, and for the generating of things animate, and awakens internal heat for the bringing of them to birth. Whence matter is quickened for receiving forms; and from the primary rotation of the Earth natural bodies have their primary impetus and original activity. The motion then of the whole Earth is primary, astral, circular, around its own poles, whose verticity arises on both sides from the plane of the æquator, and whose vigour is infused into opposite termini, in order that the Earth may be moved by a sure rotation for its good, the Sun also and the stars helping its motion. But the simple straight motion downwards of the Peripateticks is a motion of weight, a motion of the aggregation of disjoined parts, in the ratio of their matter, along straight lines toward the body of the Earth: which lines tend the shortest way toward the centre. The motions of disjoined magnetical parts of the Earth, besides the motion of aggregation, are coition, revolution, and the direction of the parts to the whole, for harmony of form, and concordancy.
[CHAP. V].
Arguments of those denying the Earth's motion, and
their confutation.
Let E F G be the Earth's globe, A its centre, L E the ascending effluvia: Just as the orbe of the effluvia progresses with the Earth, so also does the unmoved part of the circle at the straight line L E progress along with the general revolution. At L and E, a heavy body, M, falls perpendicularly toward E, taking the shortest way to the centre, nor is that right movement of weight, or of aggregation compounded with a circular movement, but is a simple right motion, never leaving the line L E. But when thrown with an equal force from E toward F, and from E toward G, it completes an equal distance on either side, even though the daily rotation of the Earth is in process: just as twenty paces of a man mark an equal space whether toward East or West: so the Earth's diurnal motion
is by no means refuted by the illustrious Tycho Brahe, through arguments such as these.
[CHAP. VI].
On the cause of the definite time, of an entire
rotation of the Earth.
[CHAP. VII].
On the primary magnetick nature of the Earth,
whereby its poles are parted from the poles
of the Ecliptick.
Around these poles of the Ecliptick the direction of the poles of the Earth is borne: and by this motion the præcession of the æquinoxes is apparent to us.
[CHAP. VIII].
On the Præcession of the Æquinoxes, from the magnetick
motion of the poles of the Earth, in the Arctick
and Antarctick circle of the Zodiack.
[CHAP. IX].
On the anomaly of the Præcession of the Equinoxes,
and of the obliquity of the Zodiack.
Copernicus' contorted circlet in the Arctick circle of the Zodiack.
Let F B G be the half of the Arctick circle described round the pole of the Zodiack: A B C the solstitial colure: A the pole of the Zodiack; D E the anomaly of longitude 140 minutes at either side on both ends: B C the anomaly of obliquity 24 minutes: B the greater obliquity of 23 degrees 52 minutes: D the mean obliquity of 23 degrees 40 minutes: C the minimum obliquity of 23 degrees 28 minutes.
The period of motion of the præcession of the æquinoxes is 25,816 Ægyptian years; the period of the obliquity of the Zodiack is 3434 years, and a little more. The period of the anomaly of the præcession of the æquinoxes is 1717 years, and a little more. If the whole time of the motion AI were divided into eight equal parts: in the first eighth the pole is borne somewhat swiftly from A to B; in the second eighth, more slowly from B to C; in the third, with the same slowness from C to D; in the fourth, more swiftly again from D to E; in the fifth, with the same swiftness from E to F; again more slowly from F to G; and with the same slowness from G to H; in the last eighth, somewhat swiftly again from H to I. And this is the contorted circlet of Copernicus, fused with the mean motion into the curved line which is the path of the true motion. And thus the pole attains the period of the anomaly of the præcession of the æquinoxes twice; and that of the declination or obliquity once only. It is thus that by later astronomers, but especially by Copernicus (the Restorer of Astronomy)[[252]], the anomalies of the motion of the Earth's axis are described, so far as the observations of the ancients down to our own times admit; but there are still needed more and exact observations for anyone to establish aught certain about the anomaly of the motion of the præcessions, and at the same time that also of the obliquity of the Zodiack. For ever since the time at which, by means of various observations, this anomaly was first observed, we have only arrived at half a period of the obliquity. So that all the more all these matters about the unequal motion both of the præcession and of the obliquity are uncertain and not well known: wherefore neither can we ourselves assign any natural causes for it, and establish it for certain. Wherefore also do we to our reasonings and experiments magnetical here set an end and period.[[253]]
