Electricity in the Service of Man, Vol. 1 : A Popular and Practical Treatise on the Applications of Electricity to Modern Life; The History and Principles of Electrical Science (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Electricity in the Service of Man, Vol. 1: A Popular and Practical Treatise on the Applications of Electricity to Modern Life; The History and Principles of Electrical Science

Early History Of Magnetism - Nothing certain is known about the exact period when the compass was brought to Europe. We find in a piece of poetry called La Bible, composed by Guyot de Provins, dated 1190, some lines to the effect that sailors consulted the magnetic needle when bad weather set in. Jacques de Vitry, in his Historia Naturalis (1215 mentions the magnetic needle as being at that time no longer a novelty.

The first European who took into account the declinations of the needle was probably Christopher Columbus. Its deflection from the due north had been previously attributed to the incorrect construction of the instrument. Variations in the deflection of the needle at the same place were first noticed by Henry Gellibrand in the year 1634.

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