50 
Account of Captain Scoresby's 
one was in connection with the pole intended to become south of 
the other ; from thence it was rubbed back again, with the south 
pole of the magnet in advance, as far as the other extremity, or 
that intended for the north pole of the horse-shoe bar. Two or 
three strokes of this kind being made from end to end of the 
bar, on each side of it, the north and south poles of the magnet 
being always directed to the south and north poles of the bar 
respectively, the magnet was slipped sideways off, when at the 
pole of the bar, and the bar was found to have acquired such a 
magnetic power as to enable it to sustain a weight of several 
ounces, hung from the conductor. Each of the bars of the horse- 
shoe magnet was treated this way in succession, and then the 
first five bars of the magnet being combined by the screws, 
were employed in the same way as the soft steel magnet had 
been used, for increasing the power of the sixth and seventh 
bars, by which they were rendered capable of carrying above 
two pounds weight each. These were then substituted, in the 
combined magnet, for the fourth and fifth bars, while the latter 
underwent the touch of the other five in combination; and, in 
their turn, the second and third, and then the seventh and first, 
were subjected to a similar treatment. After these operations, 
which occupied forty-three minutes, the compound magnet, with 
all the seven bars in connection, lifted ten pounds. After a se- 
cond series of the same kind of manipulations, five of the bars 
in combination, carried fifteen pounds ; and, after a third series, 
eighteen pounds ; but as, on trying a fifth series, little augmen- 
tation took place, the process was discontinued. The whole of 
the operations, from beginning to end, occupied above four 
hours ; but, as I generally rubbed each bar with twelve strokes 
on each side, instead of one or two, which I afterwards found 
sufficient ; and, in other parts of the process, spent a great deal 
of time and labour which turned to no account; I doubt not but 
the whole might have been completed, beginning without the 
smallest perceptible magnetism, and ending with a lifting power 
of twenty or thirty pounds, in the space of two hours, or less*. 
* u Canton, it is well known, produced magnets by means of a poker and tongs, 
with bars of soft steel. His process being fully stated in the Philosophical Trans- 
actions, some of the above details would perhaps be anticipated by the reader ; but 
they may not be uninteresting to those who are little acquainted with the subject, 
especially as the fundamental process is original, and much more ready and effs-- 
