Invention of the Mariner's Compass. 249 



so constructed as always to indicate the direction of the south. — ■ 

 The cars which showed the south," it is added, "always went 

 in front, to show the way to those who were behind, and to make 

 known the four cardinal points." In the year 235, a Chinese em- 

 peror ordered one Makiun to construct a " car which would show 

 the south," to be deposited in a sort of Museum ; and we are in- 

 formed that the invention had then, for some time, been lost, and 

 was recovered by the ingenuity of Makiun. In a book of annals 

 of the dynasty of the Tsin, the magnetic car of a previous age is 

 thus described : " The figure sculptured in wood, standing upon 

 the magnetic car, represented a genius dressed in feathers. In 

 whatever direction the car inclined or turned, the hand of the 

 genius pointed invariably to the south. When the Emperor went 

 out in form, in his carriage, this car led the van, and served to 

 show the four cardinal points." From the year 235, the con- 

 struction of a magnetic car seems to have been a puzzle which 

 different Chinese emperors proposed to the ingenious men of their 

 courts, and the knowledge of the invention appears to have been 

 confined within very narrow limits. 



Between 806 and 820, under the Thang dynasty, were first 

 constructed cars called Kin koung yuan. These were magnetic 

 cars to which had been added a sort of drum called Ki li kou, a 

 piece of mechanism which may remind one of some curious pub- 

 lic time-pieces still to be seen in old cities of Europe. A drum- 

 car is thus described by a Chinese author : " It had two stories, in 

 each of which was a wooden man holding erect a mallet of wood. 

 As soon as the car had run one ly* the wooden man of the lower 

 story struck a blow upon a drum, and a wheel placed at the mid- 

 dle of his height made one revolution. After the car had run ten 

 lys, the wooden man of the upper story struck a little bell." 



The magnetic car cannot be traced later than 1609, In that 

 year was published a celebrated Encyclopedia, which contains 

 the following passage, accompanying a design of the human 

 figure which was placed upon the magnetic car: "This is a car 

 ornament, of which the dimensions are as follows: It is one foot 

 and four inches in height, and in breadth at the bottom seven 

 inches and four hues. At the extremity of the axle-tree of the 

 car is pierced a round hole of three inches and seven lines in di- 

 ameter. In this hole moves a peg of the same size, on which is 



* A measure of distance variously estimated. John Francis Davis, in his History 

 of China, computes thirty lys in one English mile. 



