In Book I. chap. i. of Gilbert’s “De Magnete,” he says that Norman posits a point and place toward which the magnet looks but whereto it is not drawn: toward which magnetized iron, according to him, is collimated but which does not attract it. He alludes again to this “respective point” (Book IV. chaps. i. and vi.), saying that Norman originated the idea of the “respective point” looking, as it were, toward hidden principles, and held that toward this the magnetized needle ever turns, and not toward any attractional point: but he was greatly in error, albeit he exploded the ancient false opinion about attraction. Gilbert then proceeds to show how this theory is proved by Norman. The original passage in Norman’s “Newe Attractive” (London, 1581, Chap. VI) is as follows:
“Your reason towards the earth carrieth some probabilitie, but I prove that there be no Attractive, or drawing propertie in neyther of these two partes, then is the Attractive poynt lost, and falsly called the poynt Attractive, as shall be proved. But because there is a certain poynt that the needle alwayes respecteth or sheweth, being voide and without any Attractive propertie: in my judjment this poynt ought rather to bee called the poynt Respective.... This poynt Respective, is a certayne poynt, which the touched needle doth always Respect or shew....”
For the means of determining the dip or inclination, see “English Ency.”—Arts and Sciences—Vol. VIII. p. 160.
We have thus far learned that the declination or variation was alluded to by Peter Peregrinus (A.D. 1269) in the Leyden MS.; that Norman was the first to determine the dip or inclination, and we shall, under the 1776 date, find that Borda determined the third magnetic element called the intensity.
In 1581 appeared “The newe attractive ... a discours of the variation of the cumpas ... made by W. B(orough).” This was followed, in 1585 and in 1596, by “The newe Attractive ... newly corrected and amended by M. W. B.,” also, in 1614, by “The New Attractive, with the application thereof for finding the true variation of the compass, by W. Burrowes.”
Norman is also the author of “The safegarde of Saylers, or Great Rutter ... translated out of Dutch ... by R. Norman,” 1590, 1600, 1640.
References.—Noad, “Manual of Electricity,” London, 1859, p. 525; Gassendi, at A.D. 1632; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1859–1860, Vol. I. p. 179; Vol. II. pp. 281, 335; Vol. V. p. 58; Geo. Hartmann, A.D. 1543–1544; “Nature,” Vol. XIII. p. 523; Walker, “Magnetism,” p. 146, and, for a photo reproduction of the title-page to the 1581 edition as well as a copy of its contents, see G. Hellmann “Neudrucke ...” 1898, No. 10; also Sidney Lee, “Dict. of Nat. Biogr.,” Vol. XLI. p. 114, and William Whiston (1667–1752), “The Longitude and Latitude, discovered by the Inclinatory or Dipping Needle,” London, 1721.
A.D. 1580.—The celebrated naturalist Li-tchi-tchin, who finished his Pen-thsao-Kang-Mou towards the end of 1580, says: “If the loadstone was not in love with iron it would not attract the latter.” Eight and a half centuries before, about the year A.D. 727, the same allusion had been made by Tchin-Thsang-Khi in his “Natural History” (Klaproth, “Lettre à M. de Humboldt ...” Paris, 1834, p. 20).
A.D. 1580.—In Parke’s translation of the “History of the Kingdom of China,” written by Juan G. de Mendoza, a Spanish missionary sent to the Chinese Empire by Philip II, appears the following (Vol. II. p. 36): “The Chinos doo gouerne their ships by a compasse deuided into twelue partes and doo vse no sea cardes, but a briefe description of Ruter (Ruttier—Routier—direction book) wherewith they do nauigate or saile.”
A.D. 1581.—Burrowes—Borough—Burroigh (William), “a man of unquestionable abilities in the mathematiques,” Comptroller of the English navy in the reign of Elizabeth, who has been alluded to as Robert Norman, is the first in Europe to publish well authenticated observations upon the magnetic variation or declination made by him from actual observation, while voyaging between the North Cape of Finmark and Vaigatch (Vaygates). These are recorded at length in his little book dedicated to “the travaillers, seamen and mariners of England” and entitled “A Discourse of the Variation of the Cumpas, or Magneticall Needle. Wherein is Mathematically shewed, the manner of the observation, effects, and application thereof, made by W. B. And is to be annexed to The Newe Attractive of R. N. 1581 (London).”