“For lyke as ye lodestone draweth vnto it yron: so doeth beneficence and well doyng allure all men vnto her.”—Udal. Markè, c. 5.
B.C. 285–247.—Ptolemy (Ptolemæus II, surnamed Philadelphus, or the brother-loving, son of Ptolemy Soter) ordered Timochares, the architect of the palace, to suspend the iron statue of Arsinoë in the temple of Pharos.
Although Pliny says (lib. xxxiv. cap. 14) that the statue was never completed owing to the death of both Ptolemy and his architect, Ausonius (Decimus Magnus), Roman poet (A.D. 309–393), asserts the contrary in his most important work, “Mosella” (vv. 314–320), translation of Mr. de la Ville de Mirmont, the first edition of which was published by Ugollet at Venice in 1499. Therein it is said: “Timochares (and not Dinochares, Dinocrates, Demochrates or Chirocrates) suspended the statue in mid-air (dans les hauteurs aëriennes du temple).... Under the ceiling-vault crowned with loadstones, a bluish magnet draws, by means of an iron hair, the young woman it holds in its embrace.”
“Dinocrates began to make the arched roofe of the temple of Arsinoë all of magnet, or this loadstone, to the end, that within that temple the statue of the said princesse made of yron, might seeme to hang in the aire by nothing” (Holland, “Plinie,” Book XXXIV. cap. 14).
King Theodoric alludes (Cassiodor, “Variar,” lib. i. epist. 45) to a statue of Cupid in the temple of Diana at Ephesus (one of the seven Wonders of the World), and St. Augustine (“De Civitate Dei,” XXI. 6) speaks of a bronze figure in the temple of Serapis at Alexandria, both suspended by means of a magnet attached to the ceiling.[9]
References.—De Mirmont, “La Moselle,” 1889, “Commentaire,” pp. 93 and 95; St. Isidore, “Originum,” lib. xvi. cap. 4; G. Cedrinus, “Compend. Hist.,” cap. 267; Knight’s “Mech. Dict.,” Vol. II. p. 1370; Knight’s “Cyclopædia,” Vol. I. p. 363; J. Ennemoser, “Hist. of Magic,” Vol. II. p. 35; Ath. Kircher, “Magnes,” 1643, lib. ii. prob. vi.; Dinochares, with translation of poem (Claudian, Idyl V) at pp. 61–62 of “Antique Gems,” by Rev. C. W. King, London, 1866; Vincent de Beauvais, “Spec. Mai,” Douai, 1624, Vol. I., lib. viii. cap. 34; Alb. Magnus, “De Mineralibus,” 1651, lib. ii. cap. 6, p. 243; Ausonio Lucius Ampelius, “Lib. Memorialis,” Paris, 1827, cap. viii.; T. H. Martin, “Observ. et Théories,” 1865, pp. 5–7; Thos. Browne, “Pseud. Epidem.,” 1658, Book II. p. 79; W. Barlowe’s “Magneticall Advertisements,” 1616, p. 45; “Simonis Maioli ... dies Caniculares, seu Colloqui, XXIII,” 1597, P. 782; Ruffinus, “Prosper d’Aquitaine”; Porta, “Magia Naturalis,” lib. vii. cap. 27; “Mosella,” in Wernsdorf’s “Poetæ Latini Minores”; E. Salverte, “Phil. of Magic,” 1847, Vol. II. p. 215.
B.C. 200.—Polybius, a Greek statesman and historian, describes (lib. x. cap. 45, “General History”) his optical telegraph—pyrsia—because the signals were invariably produced by means of fire-lights—an unquestionable improvement upon the modes of communication which had been previously suggested by Cleoxenes and Democritus. It consisted of a board upon which the twenty-four letters of the Greek alphabet were arranged in five columns, one space being vacant. The party signalling would hold up with his left hand a number of torches indicating the column from which the desired letter was to be taken, while in the right hand he would hold up to view as many torches as were necessary to designate the particular letter required.
References.—Rollin’s “Ancient History, 9th Dundee,” Vol VI. p. 321; “Emporium of Arts and Sciences,” Vol. I. pp. 296–299; “Penny Encycl.,” Vol. XXIV. p. 145. A good cut of the Polybius telegraph will be found at p. 2 of “Wireless Telegraphy,” by Wm. Maver, Jr., New York, 1904, and a very detailed account of all known fire signals is given at pp. 148 and 373, Vol. IV of “The History of Herodotus,” by Geo. Rawlinson, London, 1880.
B.C. 60–56.—Lucretius (Titus Lucretius Carus), Roman poet, alludes to the magnet in his poem “De Rerum Natura” (“The Nature of Things”), thus translated by Dr. Thomas Busby, London, 1813, Book VI. vv. 1045–1059:
“Now, chief of all, the Magnet’s powers I sing,