242 “Invention of the Mariner's Needle. oe 
oe 5 i : a 
: - Y «-e 
Arr. IIl.— Abstract of a Letter B Baron A. Humboldt, upon the - 
Invention of the Mariner's Compass.—Lettre 4 M. le Baron 
A. de Humboldt, sur l’Invention de la Boussole ; par M. J.° - 
Kuaprorn. Paris: 1834. pp. 138. : 
; ‘ 
Read before the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, by Epwarp E. Sat- 
ispury, A. M., and published by permission of the Academy. 
* * 2 
Tus is the title of a little volume, published six years ago, in 
which M. Klaproth, a well known orientalist, since deceased,* has 
given the result of researches made by him, respecting the inven- 
tion of the mariner’s compass. 
It has been long since generally admitted, that the classic wri- 
ters, though they had some idea of the attracting and repelling 
power of the magnet, were ignorant of its polarity, and conse- 
quently of its applicability to navigation. But the later opinion, 
that the merit of this discovery is to be attributed to an Italian 
of the middle age, must be also abandoned. Klaproth’s investi- 
gations go to prove, that our knowledge of the magnet, as well 
as of the magnetic needle and compass, has been derived, either 
directly or indirectly, from the East, and originally from China, 
where the earliest notices of both belong. 
Should this work not have become known already in this coun- 
try, a brief abstract of its most important points may not be un- 
entertaining or without value. ‘ 
The name magnet comes from the Greek. ‘The most ancient 
Greek name for this natural production was Mos jjgaxheia, stone 2 
Heraclea, a city situated at the foot of Mt. Sipylus, in Lydia. 
This city was afterwards called Magnesia, and the name of the 
stone, for which it was remarkable, became changed to Maj?" 
ows Médoc, stone of Magnesia, or vulgarly, Méyvys, and Méyrit"é 
The same name is found in the Latin, and its origin from the 
Greek is confirmed by Lucretius, who says 
“Quem magneta vocant patrio de nomine Graii : 
Magnetem, quia sit patriis in montibus ortus.”’ 
Other languages into which the name magnet has been ineo! 
, are the modern Greek, (Méyvyrijs,) the German, (m4as” 
net, ) the AHollandish, (magneet-stein,) the Danish, (magneet,) the 
Swedish, (magnet,) the language of the Grisons, in the dialect of 
etna RN li iiaaclap lias 
* M. Klaproth was a Prussian, born at Berlin in 1783, and died at Paris in 1895. 
