Makers of Electricity

by Brother Potamian; James J. Walsh

Fig. 5
The First Dip-Circle, Invented by Norman in 1576

Like declination, the first discovered of the three magnetic elements, the dip was found to vary with place on the earth's surface, being 0° at the magnetic equator and 90° at either pole. It was with a Norman dip-circle, greatly improved, that Ross in 1831 found the north magnetic pole of the earth to be in Boothia Felix in latitude 70° 5'.3 N., and longitude 96° 45'.8 W.; and it was with a similar instrument that Amundsen recently studied the magnetic conditions of that Arctic region, the exact location of the pole itself being finally determined by an earth-inductor or spinning coil of the latest make. Though the results of his observations have not yet been made public, it is generally known that they indicate a spot for the magnetic pole close to that found by Sir James Ross. It is not expected, however, that the location of the pole by the Norwegian Commander shall exactly coincide with that of the English Captain, because the magnetic pole is believed to have nomadic tendencies of its own like our geographical pole, only much more pronounced in magnitude. After moving westward for some time at the rate of a mile per year, it retraced its steps and is now back again in the vicinity of its starting place.

Besides his dip-circle, Norman also devised a simple and very apt illustration of magnetic inclination. Thrusting a steel needle through a round piece of cork, he pared the latter down until the system, consisting of the needle and the cork, sank to a certain depth in a glass vessel containing water, and there took up a horizontal position. The needle was next removed from the water and magnetized with great care, so as not to disturb its position in the cork. When placed again in the water, the needle sank to its former depth and settled down at an angle of 71° to the horizon.

The same illustration shows another experiment which Norman made in order to determine whether the earth exerts a force of translation on a magnet, in virtue of which the magnet would tend to move bodily toward the pole. For this purpose, he floated a magnetized piece of steel wire on the surface of the water and noticed that, wherever placed, it merely swung round into the magnetic meridian without showing any tendency to move northward or southward toward the rim of the vessel. Hartmann, who observed the declination of the needle on land as stated on p. 26, appears also to have been the first to notice magnetic inclination. Having balanced a steel needle with great precision, he found that, after magnetization, it did not remain horizontal, the north-seeking end invariably dipping through an angle of 9°. The smallness of the angle in this experiment was due to the fact that the needle used by the Nuremberg Vicar could move only in a horizontal plane, whereas Norman's was free to move in a vertical circle. Had Hartmann used such a device, he would have obtained more than 60° for the dip instead of the 9° which he records.

Fig. 6
Norman's Illustration of Magnetic Dip

As already remarked, the letter in which Hartmann consigns these capital observations was written in 1544, but was not published until the third decade of the nineteenth century, so that Norman has clearly the full merit of independent discovery.

In the directions which Norman gives for making observations of dip, he states explicitly that the instrument must be adjusted "duley according to the variation of the place," which means that the plane of the circle must be turned into what was called after his time "the magnetic meridian."

The discovery of magnetic dip led Norman to discard the view generally held in his time, which placed the controlling influence of the compass-needle in far-off celestial space; for he says that the poynt respective which the magnet indicates, but to which it is not bodily drawn, is not in the heavens above, but in the earth itself. His words are: "And by the declining of the needle is also proved that the poynt respective is rather in the earth than in the heavens, as some have imagined; and the greatest reason why they so thought, as I judge, was because they were never acquainted with this declining in the needle."