Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T15:33:57.095Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ships' loadstones

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2018

C. E. N. Bromehead
C. E. N. Bromehead*
Affiliation:
H.M. Geological Survey and Museum, London
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

From the beginning of classical times it was well known that the mineral conveniently called loadstone, whether magnetite in the strict sense or some other compound, attracted or, better, adhered to iron ; also that this property was imparted to a piece of iron in contact with a loadstone, so that a chain of disconnected iron rings could be suspended from it. This action aroused such wonder that many superstitions gathered round the stone which was reckoned throughout tlle Middle Ages as a gem. A genuine economic value was given to loadstone when the further discovery was made that a suitably shaped piece of the stone, or of iron touched with it, if free to move, would always aline itself approximately north and south.

Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical magazine and journal of the Mineralogical Society , Volume 28 , Issue 203 , December 1948 , pp. 429 - 437
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1948

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Select Bibliography

Agricola, (G.). De natura fossilium. Basle, 1546.Google Scholar
Agricola, (G.). De re metallica. Basle, 1556. English translation by H. C. & L. H. Hoover, London, 1912.Google Scholar
Albertus Magnus (St. Albert) (about 1250). De mineralibus et rebus metallicis libri quinque. Text used, Cologne, 1569; also in Opera crania, edited by A. Borgnet, Paris, 1890.Google Scholar
Bacon, (Roger) (late XIII century). Opus tertium, minus, etc., edited by J. S. Brewer, Rolls Series, London, 1859. Opus majus, edited by J. H. Bridges, Oxford, 1897.Google Scholar
Barlowe, (W.), The navigator's supply. London, 1597.Google Scholar
Baxter, (N.). Sir Philip Sidney's Ourania. London, 1606.Google Scholar
Beazley, (C. A.). The dawn of modern geography, vol. 3. London, 1906.Google Scholar
Browne, (Sir T.). Pseudodoxia, 6th edition. London, 1672.Google Scholar
Camden, (W.). Britannia. London, 1607. This Latin edition translatcd by E. Gibson, London, 1695.Google Scholar
Canton, (J.). A method of making artificial magnets without the use of natural ones. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London, 1753, vol. 47 (for 1751–52), pp. 31–38.Google Scholar
Castro, (J. de) (1538-39). See Terrestrial Magnetism, Baltimore, 1944, vol. 49.Google Scholar
Colt-Hoaire, (Sir R.). Classical tour through Italy. London, 1819.Google Scholar
Genser, (C.). De rerum fossilium, lapidum et gemmarum, figuris & similitudinibus liber. Tiguri (Zürieh), 1565.Google Scholar
Gilbert, (W.). De magnete. London, 1600. English translation by Gilbert Club, London, 1900.Google Scholar
de Provins, Guyot (about 1200). La Bible. See under Wright.Google Scholar
Haskins, (C. H.). Michael Scot and Frederick II. Isis, Bralxellcs, 1921, vol. 4, pp. 250–275.Google Scholar
Haskins, (C. H.). Science at the court of the emperor Frederick II. Amer. Hist. Rev., 1922, vol. 27, pp. 669–694.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haskins, (C. H.). Studies in the history of mediaeval science. Cambridge (Mass.), 1924.Google Scholar
Isidorus, (VI-VII century). Etymologiarum. Text. Oxford, 1911.Google Scholar
James, (Captain T.) Voyage in intended discovery ef the north-west passage (1631-32). In Churchill's collection of voyages, vol. 2, London, 1704. Also in Hakluyt Soc., 1st Series, nos. 88, 89, for 1893.Google Scholar
Kircher, , A. Magnes. Cologne, 1643.Google Scholar
Leonardus, (C.). Speculum lapidum. Venice, 1502. English translation, Mirror of Stones. London, 1750.Google Scholar
Lister, (M.). Journey to Paris. London, 1698.Google Scholar
Marbod(e)us, (about 1080). Liber lapidum. Edited, with French version, by S. Ropartz, Rennes [1873]. Text only in Migne, Pat. Lat., vol. 171. Paris, 1893. English version in C. W. King, Antique gems. London, 1860.Google Scholar
Merrett, C. Pinax rerum naturalium Britannicarum. 2nd edit., London, 1667.Google Scholar
Mitchell, (A. C.). Chapters in the history of terrestrial magnetism.—Part I, on the directional property. Terr. Magn., 1932, vol. 37, pp. 105–146.Google Scholar
Moscardo, L. Museo moscardo. Padua, 1656.Google Scholar
Neckham, (A.) (b. 1157, d. 1217). De naturis rerum (probably 1186), and De laudibus divinae sapientiae (some years later). Texts edited by T. Wright. Rolls Series, London, 1863. De utensilibus (1200 or earlier). See under Wright.Google Scholar
Norman, (R.). The newe attractive. London, 1581.Google Scholar
Peregrinus., Petrus Epistola de magnete. 1269. MS. reproduced by B. Quaritch. London, 1900. Translation by S. P. Thompson. London, 1902.Google Scholar
Pliny, [C. Plinius Secundus, ob. A.D. 79]. Naturalis historiae, Libri xxxvii. Text used, London, 1826; Translation, J. Bostock and H. T. Riley. London, 1855–57.Google Scholar
Polwhele, (R.). History of Devonshire. Exeter, 1797-1800.Google Scholar
Porta, (J. B.). Magia naturalis libri xx. Naples, 1558. Text used, Leyden, 1644. Translation, Natural magic by John Baptista Porta, a Neapolitaine, London, 1658 [not seen: quoted by S. P. Thompson].Google Scholar
Sibbald, (R.). Scotia illustrata. Edinburgh, 1684.Google Scholar
Swedenborg, (E.). Principia (Op. Phil. et Mineral., vol. l). Dresden & Leipzig, 1734.Google Scholar
Tafur, (P.). Travels in 1435–39. Translation in Broadway travellers. London, 1926.Google Scholar
Thompson, (S. P.). Notes on the De magnete of Dr. William Gilbert. Privately printed, 1901.Google Scholar
Thompson, (S. P.). Petrus Peregrinus and his Epistola de magnete. Proc. Brit. Acad., vol. 2, for 1906.Google Scholar
Vitry, (J. De) (about 1218). History of Jerusalem, chap. 89. Quoted by Mottelay and others.Google Scholar
Webster, (J). Metallographia: or, an history of metals. London, 1671.Google Scholar
Winter, (H.). Who invented the compass? Mariner's Mirror, Cambridge, 1937, vol. 23, pt. 1, pp. 95–102.Google Scholar
Woodward, (J.). Natural history of the fossils of England in a catalogue.… London, 1729.Google Scholar
Wright, (T.). Volume of vocabularies (Library of National Antiquities, no. 1). Privately printed, London, 1857.Google Scholar