60 
GREENLAND VOYAGE. 
process was discontinued. The whole of the opera¬ 
tions, 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; aiid, in other 
parts of the process, spent a great deal of time 
and labour which turned to no account, I doubt 
not hut the whole might have been completed, be¬ 
ginning without the smallest perceptible magne- 
- tism, and ending with a lifting power of twenty 
or thirty pounds, in the space of two hours, or 
less *. 
As steel does not receive, immediately on be¬ 
ing touched, the full degree of magnetic energy 
of which it is susceptible, a conductor was applied 
to the magnet now formed ; and it was laid aside, 
with the view of augmenting its power on a sub¬ 
sequent occasion. 
* 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 Transactions, 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 fun¬ 
damental process is original, and much more ready and 
efficient, I apprehend, than that of Canton, one blow with 
a hammer being capable of developing as much magnetism 
as a quarter of an hour’s labour with a poker and tongs. 
