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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
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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

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