l"8' -6^^ tf Magnetlfm on Time-plec/s. 



fliould have diftind poles. Happening to have a watcfr in 

 my poffeffion, of excellent workmanfhip, but which per- 

 formed the mod irregularly of any watch I had ever feen r 

 and having repeatedly examined every part with particular 

 attention, without bemg able to difcover any caufe likely 

 to produce fuch an effect, it put me upon examining whe- 

 ther the balance might not be magnetic enough to produce 

 the irregularity obferved in its rate of going. 



I took the balance out of its fituation in the watch, and,, 

 after removing the pendulum fpring, put it hiEo a poifing, 

 tool, intending to approach it with a magnet, but at a con- 

 fiderable diftancej to obferve the effccl:, while at the fame 

 time the diftanee of the magnet mould preclude the poflibi- 

 iity of the magnetic virtue being thereby communicated to 

 the balance. I had no fooner put it into the toot than I 

 obferved it much out of poife j that is, the one fide appeared 

 to be heavier than the other : but, as it had been before ex- 

 amined, in that particular, by a very careful workman, more, 

 than once, I was at a lofs to determine what to think of the 

 effect I faw ; when happening to change the pofition of the 

 tool upon the board, the balance then appeared to be in 

 poife. As there could be no magic in the cafe, it appeared 

 that the balance had magnetic polarity, as no other Gaufe 

 could produce the effect I had witneffed, and which was 

 repeated as often as I ehofe to move the tool from the one 

 poiition to the other. It happened that I was then fitting 

 with my face to the fouth : a cir-aumftanoc that led me, in 

 placing the plane of the balance vertically* to put it nortk 

 and fouth, and of courfe the axis eaft and weft— the only 

 pofition in which the magnetic influence could make itfelf 

 moft apparent, and which will account for the circumftancie 

 not having been obferved by the workman who examined 

 the poife of the balance before I did ; for, as often as P 

 placed the plane of the balance vertically between eaft and 

 weft it was in poife, whichever end of its axis was placed 

 towards the fouth, 



Having 



