242 Invention of the Mariner^s Needle. 



Art. II. — Abstract of a Letter to Baron A. Humboldt, upon the 

 Invention of the Mariner's Compass. — Lettre a M. le Baron 

 A. de Humboldt, sur I'Invention de la Boussole ; par M. J. 

 Klaproth. Paris : 1834. pp. 138. 



Read before the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, by Edward E. Sal- 

 isbury, A. M., and published by permission of the Academy. 



This 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 tlie magnet, were ignorant of its polarity, and conse- 

 quently of its applicabihty 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 Udog rigaxXeta, stone of 

 Heraclea, a city situated at the foot of Mt. Sipylus, in Lydia. 

 This city was afterwards called JMagnesia, and the name of the 

 stone, for which-it was remarkable, became changed to M&yvri- 

 cwg UOo;, stone of Magnesia, or vulgarly, M&-(vijg, and M&fvrjtrig. 

 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 orlus." 



Other languages into which the name magnet has been incor- 

 porated, are the modern Greek, (Md/vj/i^js,) the German, (mag- 

 net.) the HoUandish, (magneet-stein,) the Danish, (magneet,) the 

 Swedish, (magnet,) the language of the Grisons, in the dialect of 



" M. Klaproth was a Prussian, born at Berlin in 1783, and died at Paris in 1835. 



