52 PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



IXth century (A.D.) the Chinese navigated as far as Ceylon 

 and the Persian Gulf with its assistance ; it was thus intro- 

 duced into India, whence the Arabs probably brought it to 

 us ; but it was amongst us that it was improved and ex- 

 tensively used in navigation. It certainly was due to neither 

 Marco Paolo (1256 1323) nor Gioja d'Amalfi (1302) a 

 myth that stands on the same footing as the tradition 

 regarding gunpowder. Mention of the compass is to be 

 found in books written long before Gioja's birth viz., La 

 Bible, written by Guyot de Provins in 1190 ; in " Treatise on 

 Things pertaining to Ships," by Alexander Neckam, of St. 

 Albans, born in 1157; and in James de Vitry's Chronicle,, 

 written in 1220. It was then called the sail-stone. Gioja r 

 who was a navigator, probably improved what was used in 

 his time. He is said to have made a rude compass by means 

 of a round cardboard with a magnetised needle fixed on it,, 

 which he laid on the surface of a basin full of water. The 

 card thus rendered sensitive to magnetic action would easily 

 revolve under its influence and point to the north. But the 

 compass was used in a different way long before Gioja's time. 



Xlllth c. Paper, one of the greatest elements of civilisa- 

 tion. Paper seems to have originated in China, and to 

 have been brought to us by the Arabs. These lay a claim 

 to the invention. It was made of rags in Europe during the 

 Xlllth century. 



Xlllth c. Gunpowder, the destroyer of Feudalism, the 

 instrument of freedom and political progress, and for blasting 

 purposes in engineering work one of our most useful agents. 

 It was doubtless invented in the East, just as the Greek fire 

 was ; the Arabs may justly lay a claim to its discovery their 

 chemical manipulation led them to it and they employed it 

 with cannon as early as iiiS*; but it was Europe which 

 perfected its fabrication, and made an extensive use of it in 

 war. We must reject as a myth the ascription of the invention 

 to the Swiss monk Schwartz, or Roger Bacon. These two 

 merely transcribed the description of gunpowder found in 



* The Moors employed artillery against Saragossa in 1118, the 

 Spaniards used it against Cordova in 1280 and against Gibraltar in 1306, 

 the King of Granada at the Siege of Baza in 1325. 



