220 



THE FARMERS CABINET. 



VOL. I. 



houses. For instance notice the fastening 

 of gates or driving stakes. One siitch in 

 time or manner will save nine. By doing 

 one thing well another thing may be pre- 

 served, and much property saved, l^ut one 

 more hint; after a farmer has committed his 

 seed to the earth, it is his duty to pray to the 

 Giver of every good and perfect gift, that he 

 may have an abundant harvest. Have the 

 prayers of every man been answered to the 

 restraining or giving rain to water the earth ? 

 Who is it that gives us fruitful seasons, 

 filling our hearts with gladness 1 



Pougkkeepsie Telegraph. 



InT-cntion of tlie Mariner's Compass* 



The invention of this precious instrument 

 has hitherto been awarded to Favio Gioia, a 

 Neapolitan, in 1302, or 1303. But this state- 

 ment has rested on no satisfactory evidence;; 

 and, when it was discovered that the Chinese 

 and Arabian authors had spoken of the mag- 

 net's polarity before the fourteenth century, 

 it began to be suspected that the Neapolitan 

 •was merely the introducer of the compass 

 into Europe. To settle the question, in Jan- 

 uary, 1834, Baron Humboldt wrote to M. 

 Klaproth to,ascertain the epochs, — Ist.When 

 the Chinese discovered the polarity of the 

 magnet; and 2d. When they began to apply 

 it to the purposes of navigation. M. Klap- 

 roth has replied in a work, published in Paris 

 towards the close of the year, in which the 

 most remarkable proof of the Chinese claims 

 to this invention, is in the history of the 

 magnetic chariots, whose origin is lost in the 

 obscurity of the mythological ages. The 

 accompanying representation of one of these 

 chariots is taken from the 33d volume of 

 Japanese Encyclopaedia. 



The figure in front of the chariot was made 

 of some light material ; it was fixed upon a 

 pivot, audits finger invariably pointed to the 

 south, which, as we have already said, was 

 the kibleh, or sacred point of the Chinese, to 

 which they always turn when performing 

 their devotions. It is intimated rather ob- 

 scurely, that these magnetic chariots were 

 first invented for a religious purpose, name- 

 ly, to enable the devout to discover their 

 kibleh when the sun and stars were obscured 

 by clouds — a purpose to which the compass 

 is frequently applied in the present day by 

 Mohammedan nations; but there are very 

 full descriptions of the use made of these 

 chariots in directing the march of armies, 

 and guiding ambassadors M. Klaproth has 

 collected, from Chinese authorities, many 

 curious anecdotes of the use made of these 

 chariots ; under the Tsin dynasty they form- 

 ed a part of every royal procession. In the 

 Tsin-tchi, or history of that dynasty, we find 



— " The wooden figure placed on the mag- 

 netic car resembled a genius wearing a dress 

 made of feathers ; whatever was the position 

 of the car, the hand of the genius always 

 pointed to the south. When the emperor 

 went in state, one of these cars headed the 

 procession, and served to indicate the cardi- 

 nal points." 



Fig. G3. 



[Magnetic Chariot.] ' 



In the history of the second Tchoa dynasty 

 which lasted from A. D. 319 to A. D. 351 

 we read, — "The Chang-Fang (president o: 

 the board of works) ordered Kiai Fei, wlu 

 was distinguished by his great skill in con- 

 structing every kind of instrument, to builc 

 a number of magnetic chariots, which were 

 sent as presents to the principal grandees o: 

 the empire." There are several accounts o: 

 the manner in which the magnetic figures 

 were constructed ; as our readers have proba- 

 bly anticipated, a magnetized bar passed 

 through the arm of the figure; and the onlj 

 variety of ingenuity displayed by the archi^ 

 tects was in balancing the figure upon its 

 pivot. The antiquity of these magnetic 

 chariots is established incontrovertibly ; the 

 step from them to the con)pass is so very 

 easy, that we may safely assert that the one 

 must have led immediately to the other. 



.Ircana of Science. 



Mr. Westbrook, of Muskingum Co. Ohio, 

 has found that the Chinese Mulberry grows 

 with the greatest luxuriance in that soil. 



