A critic named Tchen-yn admits, as already indicated herein under the A.D. 235 date, that the knowledge of the mode of construction of the magnetic cars was by no means general. “I know well,” adds he, “that, at the time of the Thâng, under Hien-toung (who ascended the throne 806 A.D., and reigned seventeen years) a chariot was made which always showed the four parts of the earth, in imitation, it was said, of those constructed at the time of Hoang-ti.... Upon it stood the figure of a spirit, whose hand always pointed to the south.”
References.—“Mémoires concernant l’histoire ...” by Saillant et Nyon, Paris, 1776–1788, Vol. XIII. p. 234; Klaproth, “Boussole,” p. 72.
A.D. 968.—Kung-foo-Whing is said to have invented a method of transmitting sound through wires by means of an apparatus called thumthsein, although no trace whatever of the latter is to be found in any of the numerous authorities herein quoted.
A.D. 1067–1148.—Frode (Ari Hinn—Ara Hin—or the Wise), Arius Polyhistor (Ari Prestrinha Frodi Thorgillsun), Icelandic historian, “than whom there is no higher authority,” was the first compiler of the celebrated “Landnama-Bok,” which contains a full account of all the early settlers in Iceland, and is doubtless the most complete record of the kind ever made by any nation.
In it, he says that, at the time Floke Vilgerderson left Rogoland, in Norway, about A.D. 868, for another visit to Gardansholm (Iceland), of which he was the original discoverer, “the seamen had no loadstone (leiderstein) in the northern countries,” thus showing, according to Prof. Hansteen, that the directive power of the needle and its use in navigation were known in Europe in the eleventh century. In this manner is given the first intimation of the knowledge of the mariner’s compass outside of China. The passage quoted above is by many supposed to be an interpolation, for it is not found in several manuscripts, and it has even been asserted (“Br. Ann.,” p. 296), that its origin does not antedate the fourteenth century, thus strengthening the claims of the French in behalf of Guyot De Provins.
References.—“Landnama-Bok,” Kiœbenhaven, 1774, T. I. chap. ii. par. 7; John Angell, “Magnet. and Elect.,” 1874, p. 10; Lloyd, “Magnetism,” p. 101; “Pre-Col. Disc. of Am.,” De Costa, pp. xxiii and 11; “Bull. de Géogr.,” 1858, p. 177; “Good Words,” 1874, p. 70; Klaproth, “Boussole,” p. 40; Hansteen, “Inquiries Concerning the Magnetism of the Earth,” and “Magazin für Naturvidenskaberne Christiana,” I. 2, “Encycl. Metrop.,” Vol. III. p. 736; the 1190–1210 entry herein.
A.D. 1111–1117.—Keou-tsoungchy, Chinese philosopher and writer, gives, in the medical natural history called “Pen-thsao-yan-i,” written by him under the Soung dynasty, the earliest description of a water compass found in any Chinese work, viz.: “The magnet is covered over with little bristles slightly red, and its superficies is rough. It attracts iron and unites itself with it; and, for this reason, it is commonly called the stone which licks up iron. When an iron point is rubbed upon the magnet, it acquires the property of pointing to the south, yet it declines always to the east, and is not perfectly true to the south.... If the needle be passed through a wick or a small tube of thin reed, and placed upon water, it will indicate the south, but with a continual inclination towards the point ping, that is to say, East five-sixths South.”
In the “Mung-khi-py-than,” also composed under the Soung dynasty, it is stated that fortune-tellers rub the needle with the loadstone in order to make it indicate the south.
References.—Comptes Rendus, Vol. XIX. p. 365; “Am. Journal Sc. and Arts,” 1841, XL. p. 248; Davis, “The Chinese,” 1844, Vol. III. p. 13; Becquerel, “Elec. et Mag.,” p. 58; Klaproth, “Boussole,” pp. 67–69, 95; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. II. p. 656, and Vol. V. p. 52; Knight, “Mech. Dict.,” Vol. II. p. 1397; Humboldt, “Examen Critique,” Paris, 1836, Vol. III. p 34.
A.D. 1160.—Eustathius, Archbishop of Thessalonica, relates in his commentary on the Iliad of Homer, that Walimer, father of Theodoric and King of the Goths, used to emit sparks from his body; also that a certain philosopher observed sparks occasionally issuing from his chest accompanied with a crackling noise.