Sonnini tells us that as this period is about the same as that of the Chinese chronicles, it can scarcely be doubted that the knowledge of both the polarity of the needle and of the use of the compass for navigation date back 3000 years (Buffon, “Terre,” Paris, An. VIII. p. 304).
This ill accords, however, with the views of others who have concluded, perhaps rightly, that the Greeks, Romans, Tuscans and Phœnicians[3] were ignorant of the directive property of the magnet, from the fact that none of the writings, more especially of Theophrastus, Plato, Aristotle, Lucretius and Pliny, make explicit allusion thereto.
References.—Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1859, Vol. V. p. 51; “Good Words,” 1874, p. 70; Brumoy, “Théâtre des Grecs,” 1820, Vol. I. p. 55; Pope’s translation of the “Iliad,” 1738, Vol. I. pp. 14, 20; Schaffner, “Telegraph Manual,” p. 19; also references under both the A.D. 121 and the A.D. 265–419 dates.
B.C. 600–580.—Thales of Miletus, Ionia, one of the “seven wise men of Greece” (the others being Solon, Chilo, Pittacus, Bias, Cleobolus and Periander), founder of the Ionic philosophy, and from whose school came Socrates, is said to have been the first to observe the electricity developed by friction in amber.
Thales, Theophrastus, Solinus, Priscian and Pliny, as well as other writers, Greek and Roman, mention the fact that when a vivifying heat is applied to amber it will attract straws, dried leaves, and other light bodies in the same way that a magnet attracts iron (“Photii Bibliotheca” Rothomagi, 1653, folio, col. 1040–1041, cod. 242).
Robert Boyle (“Philosophical Works,” London, 1738, Vol. I. p. 506, or London, 1744, Vol. III. p. 647) treats of different hypotheses advanced to solve the phenomena of electrical attraction, saying: “The first is that of the learned Nicholas Cabaeus (A.D. 1629), who thinks the drawing of light bodies by amber ... is caused by the steams which issue out of such bodies and discuss and expel the neighbouring air ... making small whirlwind.... Another is that of the eminent English philosopher, Sir Kenelm Digby (A.D. 1644), and embraced by the very learned Dr. Browne (A.D. 1646) and others, who believed that ... chafed amber is made to emit certain rays of unctuous steams, which, when they come to be a little cooled by the external air, are somewhat condensed ... carrying back with them those light bodies to which they happen to adhere at the time of their retraction.... Pierre Gassendi (A.D. 1632) thinks the same, and adds that these electrical rays ... get into the pores of a straw ... and by means of their decussation take the faster hold of it ... when they shrink back to the amber whence they were emitted ... Cartesius (Descartes, A.D. 1644) accounts for electrical attractions by the intervention of certain particles, shaped almost like small pieces of riband, which he supposes to be formed of this subtile matter harboured in the pores or crevices of glass.”
The ancients were acquainted with but two electrical bodies—amber (electron), which has given the denomination of the science; and lyncurium, which is either the tourmaline or the topaz (Dr. Davy, “Mem. Sir Humphry Davy,” 1836, Vol. I. p. 309). From a recent article treating of gems, the following is extracted: “The name of the precious stone inserted in the ring of Gyges has not been handed down to us, but it is probable that it was the topaz, whose wonders Philostratus recounts in the Life of Apollonius. An attribute of the sun and of fire, the ancients called it the gold magnet, as it was credited with the power of attracting that metal, indicating its veins, and discovering treasures. Heliodorus, in his story of Theagenes and Caricles, says that the topaz saves from fire all those who wear it, and that Caricles was preserved by a topaz from the fiery vengeance of Arsaces, Queen of Ethiopia. This stone was one of the first talismans that Theagenes possessed in Egypt. The topaz, at present, symbolizes Christian virtues—faith, justice, temperance, gentleness, clemency.”
References.—“Greek Thinkers,” by Theodor Gomperz, translation of L. Magnus, London 1901, p. 532; Zahn at A.D. 1696; Joannes Ruellius, “De Natura Stirpium,” 1536, p. 125; Paul Tannery, “Pour l’Histoire de la Science Hellène,” Paris, 1887, chap. iii. pp. 52–80; Becquerel, “Traité Expérimental,” Paris, 1834, Vol. I. p. 33; Pliny, “Natural History,” Bostock and Riley, 1858, book 37, chap. xii. p. 403; Pline, “Histoire Naturelle,” 1778, livre 37, chapitre iii.; Lardner, “Lectures,” 1859, Vol. I. p. 104; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. I. p. 182; Poggendorff, XI. p. 1088; Apuleius, Floridor, p. 361; Plato; Timæus, The Locrian; “De Anima Mundi ...,” 12, 15; Pauli (Adrian), Dantzig, 1614; Ulysses Aldrovandus, “Musaeum Metallicum,” pp. 411–412; Aurifabrum (Andreas), “Succini Historia,” ... Königsberg, 1551–1561; and, for the different names given to amber and the magnet by the ancients, consult, more especially, the numerous authorities cited by M. Th. Henri Martin (“Mém. présenté à l’Académie des Inscrip. et Belles Lettres,” première partie, Vol. VI. pp. 297–329, 391–411, Paris, 1860); J. Matthias Gessner, “De Electro Veterum” (Com. Soc. Reg. Sc. Gött., Vol. III for 1753, p. 67); Louis Delaunay, “Minér. des Anciens,” Part 2, p. 125 (Poggendorff, Vol. II. p. 540); Philip Jacob Hartmann, in Phil. Trans., Vol. XXI. No. 248, pp. 5, 49, also in Baddam’s Abridgments, Vol. III, first edition, 1739, pp. 322–366.
B.C. 600.—The Etruscans are known to have devoted themselves at this period to the study of electricity in an especial manner.[4] They are said to have attracted lightning by shooting arrows of metal into clouds which threatened thunder. Pliny even asserts that they had a secret method of not only “drawing it (the lightning) down” from the clouds, but of afterwards “turning it aside” in any desired direction. They recognized different sources of lightning, those coming from the sky (a sideribus venientia), which always struck obliquely, and others from the earth (infera, terrena), which rose perpendicularly. The Romans, on the other hand, recognized only two sorts, those of the day, attributed to Jupiter, and those of the night, attributed to Summanus (see Vassalli-Eandi at A.D. 1790).
This Vassalli-Eandi—like L. Fromondi—made special study of the very extensive scientific knowledge displayed by the ancients and, as shown in his “Conghietture ...” he concluded that they really possessed the secret of attracting and directing lightning. The above-named extracts concerning the Etruscans and Romans are made from the subjoined work of Mme. Blavatsky, wherein the following is likewise given.