BIBLIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
OF
ELECTRICITY & MAGNETISM

St. Augustine. “La Cité de Dieu.”

from a manuscript in the Musée de Chantilly.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
OF
ELECTRICITY & MAGNETISM
CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED

RESEARCHES INTO THE DOMAIN OF THE
EARLY SCIENCES, ESPECIALLY FROM THE PERIOD OF
THE REVIVAL OF SCHOLASTICISM, WITH BIOGRAPHICAL AND OTHER
ACCOUNTS OF THE MOST DISTINGUISHED NATURAL PHILOSOPHERS
THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE AGES

COMPILED BY

PAUL FLEURY MOTTELAY, Ph.D.

AUTHOR OF
“GILBERT OF COLCHESTER,” “THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ELECTRO-CHEMISTRY,” ETC.

WITH INTRODUCTION BY THE LATE PROF. SILVANUS P. THOMPSON, D.Sc., F.R.S.

AND FOREWORD BY SIR R. T. GLAZEBROOK, K.C.B., D.Sc., F.R.S.

“Historia, quoquo modo scripta delectat.”—Pliny.

“Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.”—Virgil.

“Il importe beaucoup de connaître l’histoire de la science à laquelle on s’attache.”—Éloge de Boerhaave.

“It is of great advantage to the student of any subject to read in the original memoirs on that subject, for science is always most completely assimilated when it is found in its nascent state. Every student of science should, in fact, be an antiquary in his subject.”—J. Clerk Maxwell.

“Les tâtonnements de nos prédécesseurs nous apprennent à marcher avec plus de sûreté, et l’on ne sait jamais mieux conduire la science en avant que lorsqu’on sait le chemin qu’elle a parcouru jusqu’à nous.”—J. P. Rossignol.

WITH FRONTISPIECE AND PLATES

LONDON

CHARLES GRIFFIN & COMPANY LIMITED

12 EXETER STREET, STRAND, W.C. 2

1922

[All rights reserved.]

Printed in Great Britain by Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.

PORTRAIT OF
THE AUTHOR

TAKEN FOR
A PASSPORT TO FRANCE
A FEW WEEKS
BEFORE HIS DEATH

FOREWORD

BY

SIR RICHARD T. GLAZEBROOK, K.C.B., D.Sc., F.R.S.

Past President of the Institute of Electrical Engineers
and late Director of the National Physical Laboratory

This splendid volume has a tragic story. Dedicated to Lord Kelvin, it opens with an introduction by Silvanus Thompson and a preface by the distinguished author who himself passed from us before the book containing the fruit of many years of toil was ready for issue.

And what toil! A Bibliographical History of Electricity and Magnetism covering 4458 years, from 2637 B.C., when Hoang-Ti, Emperor of China, is said to have directed the pursuit of his troops after a rebellious subject by the aid of the compass, up to Christmas Day, A.D. 1821, when Faraday first caused a wire carrying a current to rotate in a magnetic field.

The early centuries are passed over quickly. Homer’s name occurs with quotations from the Odyssey:

“In wondrous ships self-mov’d, instinct with mind,

No helm secures their course, no pilot guides;

Like men intelligent, they plough the tides.”

Does this mean that the Greeks knew of the compass? The author is doubtful.

Thales, 600–580 B.C., the discoverer of frictional electricity, follows. The Crusaders wrote of the magnet. A facsimile page is given of Vincent de Beauvais’ Speculum Naturale, and Gauthier d’Espinois, who lived about A.D. 1250, sang to his mistress:

“Tout autresi (ainsi) comme l’aimant deçoit (detourne)

L’aigulette pas force de vertu

A ma dame tot le mont (monde) retennue

Qui sa beauté connoit et aperçoit.”

And when one passes to more recent years, there is not a name one knows omitted from the list. There are also many included who all contributed in some way to the growth of natural knowledge, but who can only be known to the few, the very few, who have burrowed in past records scattered far and wide with the perseverance, the patience, and the skill of Dr. Mottelay.

And he has discovered interesting facts without number, and at the same time has supported his case with full references to original works. To the question, How can I find out what—some unknown writer—has written about Electricity? there can in future be but one answer: Look him up in Dr. Mottelay’s Bibliographical History. Our debt to the author is no small one; our regrets that he is not here to be gratified by the reception his book must meet with are deep and sincere.

The Great War delayed the issue of the book. The public are indebted to Messrs. C. Griffin & Co., Ltd., for bringing out a work of the kind under the difficulties which all scientific publications have met with since 1918, and Dr. Mottelay realized to the full the value of the assistance they gave him. I trust with confidence that electricians throughout the world (for the interest of the book is world-wide) will not be slow to show their appreciation of the work of all those who have combined to render them so marked a service.

R. T. Glazebrook.

TO
THE REVERED MEMORY
OF
LORD KELVIN

PREFACE

The present work is the definitive edition of my “Chronological History of Magnetism, Electricity and the Telegraph,” which had tentative publication (1891–1892) serially in four leading technological Journals, viz. “Engineering” of London, “The Electrical World” of New York, “La Lumière Electrique” of Paris, and “L’Industrie Moderne” of Brussels.

Since the time of that first publication, it has received a most thorough revision of the original text, for correction of faults of form, or of substance, suggested by learned critics conversant with the history of electricity and magnetism; and there have been added a very large number of new entries besides exhaustive notices of the work done by Peregrinus, Gilbert, Oersted, Faraday and other great pathfinders, also biographical and bibliographical notices of all the prominent ancient writers mentioned in the original compilation.

This bibliography commences B.C. 2637—conclusively shown to be the earliest date at which history notes anything resembling the application of the magnetic influence—and it ends with Michael Faraday, esteemed by Tyndall to be “the greatest experimental philosopher the world has ever seen,” and who is held “to have done more for the development of electrical science than any other investigator.” Thus is the chronological series shown to cover 4458 years, being purposely made to terminate at A.D. 1820–1821 (Oersted, Ampère, Arago, Faraday, etc.), the culminating period when, through the splendid discovery of electro-magnetism, the two immense groups of phenomena were first linked together.

Besides the matter distinctly involved in the title of the new work, it has been deemed advisable to note in this History all the most important forms of the optical telegraph, or semeiograph. Many of the ancient and historical methods for communicating intelligence swiftly at great distances are noticed in their chronological order: doubtless, this will prove to the generality of readers no less interesting than the vast multitude of curious facts pertaining to the direct line of researches. An exhaustive cross-entry Index of Selected Names and Subjects, embracing fuller titles and much additional data that could not well be entered into the body of the work, will, for the first time, make this mass of historical data readily accessible.

To bar controversies and partisan discussion as to the relative merits of different discoverers and inventors, concerning which authorities are at variance, it has been thought best to quote all of the weightiest known authorities under the respective heads and dates of the several claimants. To the would-be historian and to the delving student, this will certainly appear the better course. A case in point, and it is no uncommon one, attaches to the invention of the mariner’s compass, where that instrument and its original employment in navigation are credited with equal assurance to China, Iceland, France, England and Italy, by equally eminent historians and scientists. And, as nearly all, except the very earliest, discoveries of any high importance have already been traced to their respective origins by many authors, additional data have been gathered and quoted wherever such data seemed deserving of more than the ordinary notices previously accorded them in print, or where the peculiar nature of the discovery, or the identity of its author, merited authentication to preclude doubt or controversy.

The unusual number of cumulative references purposely given throughout many entries (the most important of which were originally set in italics) cannot be seriously objected to, as they afford ready means for making searches through different accessible channels, covering various phases of a subject, and they facilitate the verification of all extracts and of all quoted passages. They likewise effectually offset the likelihood of misprints necessarily attaching to many of the authorities which are cited from, and which often can be found solely in, rare early publications or in more or less unintelligible manuscripts. Only those who have had to make important searches through such can appreciate the difficulties which continually beset the investigator. Many of the older serials likewise prove quite unreliable and disappointing, either through wrong pagination or irregular and sometimes conflicting dates of publication, as well as through the rearrangement or redistribution of parts or series, at various periods and in different volumes. This is the case, more particularly, with “Le Journal des Savants” and with “The Philosophical Transactions,” as it is also with many technical serial publications of various countries which are referred to in the following pages.

In the Preface to his “Experimental Researches,” the great Faraday justly remarked that: “The date of a scientific paper containing any pretensions to discovery is frequently a matter of serious importance, and it is a great misfortune that there are many most valuable communications, essential to the history and progress of science, with respect to which this point cannot now be ascertained. This arises from the circumstance of the papers having no dates attached to them individually, and of the Journals in which they appear having such as are inaccurate, i. e. dates of a period earlier than that of publication.”

Of the afore-named serials, the very important “Philosophical Transactions” have doubtless been most frequently alluded to herein, both in their original and abridged forms, and, for that reason, the assistance of representatives of the Royal Society has been sought in order to give a proper account to date, showing the difficulties which have throughout been encountered by its many successive editors. It will be seen, at pages 546–547, that there were numerous irregularities in the publication of the unabridged series from the initial date of 1665, only seven numbers having been issued from 1679 to 1682, whilst neither numbers nor volumes appeared between 1688 and 1690, and that, through lax editing, various numbers were often, during subsequent years, assigned to volumes differently designated. In the many abridged reports, irregularities are still greater, as shown at pages 547–548. During 1721, Motte edited “an abridgment, 1700–1720, in three volumes which was very incorrect” (“Dict. Nat. Biog.,” Vol. XXXIX. p. 194). The six volumes of 1720–1732 also appeared in two volumes, published 1733. The two volumes of 1719–1733 contained an “Index to the previous seven volumes” by different authors. This was made up by John Martyn, who published in five volumes an abridgment of the Transactions for 1719–1750, which he had previously issued in three sets of two volumes each. Mr. Samuel H. Scudder’s remarks as to various discrepancies are worthy of notice. He says (“Cat. of Scient. Serials,” 1879, p. 27) that “the Philosophical Transactions Abridged have been very irregularly issued. The first five volumes went through several editions (from five to two, according to the volume) between 1705 and 1781; the later volumes through only one, 1734–1756.” He adds: “There is a strange discrepancy here, the fourth edition of the first volume being sometimes dated 1731, sometimes 1781, and sometimes 1782, whilst the fifth edition of volumes one to three is dated 1749; the eighth volume is again sometimes dated 1734, sometimes 1747.”

Were I to indite an apologia for the present work, I could not hope to express it more happily than does Mr. J. J. Fahie in the preface to his “History of Wireless Telegraphy, 1838–1899”; or, I might adopt the words of two of the most learned French authors of the day:

“Si je donne ces détails, nouveaux, ou peu connus, c’est qu’il est toujours intéressant de remonter à l’origine et au développement successif des inventions.” (M. Berthelot, in the “Comptes Rendus.”)

“S’il n’y a pas beaucoup de gens qu’elles intéressent, il y en a qu’elles intéressent beaucoup. À ceux-ci, nous avons, en rédigeant ces notes, eu l’intention et l’espérance de venir quelquefois en aide. Tout catalogue a des points obscurs, même les meilleurs.... L’office propre, le devoir de la critique, est de rechercher si ces points obscurs ne pourraient pas être éclairés par quelque lumière. Il est vrai qu’elle y perd souvent sa peine. Mais cela ne doît jamais la décourager.” (M. Hauréau, in “Le Journal des Savants.”)

I am especially thankful for the warm encouragement which I have received, on all sides, since the original work appeared in serial form. This History has been frequently called for, and I regret that I have been hitherto prevented from bringing it out earlier in its present desirable book form. This is the more to be regretted as it long ago received the practical endorsement of the doyen of the electrical profession, Lord Kelvin (formerly styled Sir William Thomson), to whom it is dedicated. Leave to do this was obtained through a mutual friend in such a cordial manner that I cannot refrain from giving the correspondence attaching thereto:

Westminster Chambers,

London, S.W.,

January 4, 1894.

“Dear Mottelay,

“I duly received yours of the 21st ... but the point on which I feel guilty is your dedication.... I have now started the matter by writing to Lord Kelvin fully on the subject, and I hope, within a week, to get his reply, which I shall at once send to you—he cannot possibly wish to decline the honour....

“I remain,

“Yours very truly,

“Latimer Clark.”

Westminster Chambers,

London, S.W.,

January 13, 1894.

“Dear Mottelay,

“Lord Kelvin’s letter is so nice a one that I send you the original, otherwise I should have liked it as an autograph for my library. I shall be glad to hear that it has duly reached you....

“Yours very truly,

“Latimer Clark.”

The University,

Glasgow,

January 11, 1894.

“Dear Clark,

“Your letter of the 4th should have been answered sooner, but for my absence from home at the time it came.

“Will you tell Mr. Mottelay that I shall feel honoured by his dedicating his ”Chronological History of Electricity and Magnetism” to me, and express to him my thanks for his kind proposal to do so.

“Yours very truly,

“Kelvin.”

I desire to record my great indebtedness to Dr. Silvanus P. Thompson, D.Sc., F.R.S., for the interest he has throughout manifested in, and the material aid he has given to, the improvement and development of the present work. Especial acknowledgment is made of Dr. Thompson’s personal revision of the articles on Petrus Peregrinus (at A.D. 1269), on William Gilbert (at A.D. 1600), and on Michael Faraday (at A.D. 1821). With all of these authors, he has become very prominently identified through the several special publications concerning them, which have been issued by him at different periods, and all of which are herein noticed in their proper order.

Thanks are likewise due, and are also by me hereby tendered, more particularly to Dr. Elihu Thomson, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; to Dr. J. A. Fleming, M.A., F.R.S.; to Mr. W. D. Weaver, late Editor of the “Electrical World”; to Mr. Wm. J. Hammer, representative of Mr. Thomas A. Edison; to Mr. A. Hastings White, assistant-librarian, Royal Society, London; to Messrs. Charles Spon and Louis H. Walter, M.A.; to Messieurs Henri Omont, Bibliothèque Nationale; Paul Marais, Bibliothèque Mazarine; Henri Martin, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal; Amédée Boinet, Bibliothèque Ste. Geneviève; Messieurs Plon Nourrit et Cie; as well as to Professors C. F. Brackett, William Hallock and Edward L. Nichols, of the Universities of Princeton, Columbia and Cornell; also to Sir Arthur Schuster, Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence, Dr. Robert L. Mond, and Dr. Horace F. Parshall, for many valuable suggestions and other aid given by all of them at different periods to the material benefit of this compilation.

It is scarcely necessary adding that, notwithstanding the great care given to the preparation of this very extensive Bibliography, and to its difficult “proof” reading, errors will undoubtedly present themselves. It is, however, hoped these will not prove of material importance. Such mistakes as are of a typographical nature can easily be recognized and in due time remedied; those, however, resulting from the conflict of authorities are more difficult to trace, and I shall greatly appreciate their being pointed out to me, with the view to improving future editions.

P. Fleury Mottelay.

INTRODUCTION

Anyone who enters on the perilous paths of Bibliography realizes, sooner or later, the truth that “of the making of books there is no end.” But there was a beginning: and if the Bibliography of Electricity promises to stretch onward into the future in endless line, at least its backward reach might seem to be finite in date. Nevertheless, the student of the early periods of book production, when the science of electricity was literally in that “infancy” from which in our time it has emerged, is continually finding that there are early works of which he was unaware, and of which even our best libraries are destitute. He finds, as he progresses backward, toward the origins of things, in how many points our ancestors in the domain of electric science had anticipated the discoveries of later date. He finds that, again and again, by some rare stroke of insight, the great minds that had devoted themselves to the research of phenomena had seen—it may be, with dim or imperfect glimpses—many of the things which are commonly regarded as quite modern. The pioneer, unbiased by the views of contemporary philosophers, unhampered by the load of textbook tradition, often sees further than the professed researcher who comes after him.

The art of scientific discovery—for it is an art—can be attained in but one way, the way of attainment in all arts, namely, by practising it. In the practice of art, the aspirant may at least learn something that all the textbooks cannot drill out of him, and which will help him in his practice, by the careful examination of the actual ways in which the discoveries of science, now facts of history, were actually made. But, to do this, he must throw overboard for a time the systematic textbooks, he must abandon the logical expositions which embody, at second hand, or at third hand, the antecedent discoveries, and he must go to the original sources, the writings and records of the discoverers themselves, and learn from them how they set to work. The modern compendious handbooks in which the results of hundreds of workers have been boiled down, as it were, to a uniform consistency, is exactly the intellectual pabulum which he must eschew. Let him read Faraday, not through the eyes of Maxwell or of Tyndall, but in his own words in the immortal pages of the “Experimental Researches,” with their wealth of petty detail and their apparent vagueness of speculation. Let him read Ohm’s own account of the law of the circuit, not some modern watered-down version. Let him turn over the pages of Franklin’s letters to Collinson, as his observations dropped red-hot out of the crucible of his endeavours. Let him read Stephen Gray’s charming experiments in the old-world diction that befitted a pensioner of the Charterhouse. Let him go back to old Gilbert, who had talked with Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh in the flesh, who had discussed magnetism with Fra Paolo Sarpi and had experimented on the dip of the needle with Robert Norman. Gilbert’s account of his own experiments is for the would-be scientific discoverer worth a hundredfold the Novum Organon of the overpraised Francis Bacon. Nay, let him go back to Peter Peregrinus, the soldier-pioneer, and see how he experimented with floating lodestones before he penned his account of the pivoted magnet—the earliest known instrument that can rightly be called a mariner’s compass. Not until he has thus become a bit of an antiquary will he have fully understood how the discoveries of old were made. And, in precisely the same spirit of quest, though with the wealth of modern appliances at his command, must he go to work, if new discoveries are to be made by him.

But, for all this, he needs a guide to tell him what are the records of the original pioneers, by what names their works are called, and where they can be found. Such a guide doubtless exists to some extent in the mere catalogues of electrical literature, such as the catalogue of the Ronalds’ Library at the Institution of Electrical Engineers, in London; or, more fully, even, in the new Catalogue of the Latimer Clark Library, now known as the Wheeler Collection, at the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, in New York. The Chronological History of Electricity which Mr. P. F. Mottelay contributed, week by week, to the columns of the “Electrical World” and of “Engineering” in the years 1891–1892, was the beginning of an attempt to provide an even more complete analysis of the earlier literature of the subject. But these are only the beginnings.

In the “Bibliographical History of Electricity and Magnetism,” which Mr. Mottelay is now giving to the world, a far more exhaustive and detailed account is rendered of the earlier workers and writers in our dual science. He has particularly worked up all important electrical channels, and in the more extended articles, some of which it has been the writer’s privilege to peruse in advance, there are presented valuable monographs dealing with particular workers who each in his own day made notable contributions to the advance of the science.

To all who would tread in their paths, and add something to the ever-widening domain of electrical discovery, this Bibliographical History may be commended, not only for what it contains, but for the appreciative spirit in which it brings before the reader the work of those men who made the science what it is.

Pioneers; O Pioneers!

Silvanus P. Thompson.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

THE BIBLIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF
ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM

From b.c. 2637 to a.d. 1821

B.C. 2637.—This date has been conclusively shown to be the earliest one at which history notes anything resembling the application of the magnetic influence. It is related that, during this sixty-first year of the reign of Hoang-ti (Yeou-hioung-che, also named Koung-fun and Hiuen-yuen), the emperor’s troops, who were pursuing the rebellious prince Tchéyeou (Tchi-yeou), lost their way, as well as the course of the wind, and likewise the sight of their enemy, during the heavy fogs prevailing in the plains of Tchou-lou. Seeing which, Hoang-ti constructed a chariot upon which stood erect a prominent female figure which indicated the four cardinal points, and which always turned to the south whatever might be the direction taken by the chariot. Thus he succeeded in capturing the rebellious prince, who was put to death.

Some say that upon this chariot stood a needle, to denote the four parts of the world. That, states the French author writing in 1736, would “indicate the use of the compass, or something very similar to it ... and it is unfortunate that the device has not been explained more fully.”

References.—Du Halde, “Description de la Chine ...,” La Haye, 1736. Vol. I. pp. 270–271; B.C. 2634, Klaproth, “Boussole,” pp. 33, 34, 71, 74, 76, 79, 82; Azuni, “Boussole,” Paris, 1809, pp. 186, 214; Staunton’s “China,” London, 1797, Vol. I. p. 446; “Encycl. Metrop.,” Vol. III. p. 736; Buffon, “La Terre,” Vol. I. p. 304; Davis, “The Chinese,” 1844, Vol. III. p. 14; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1848, Vol. V. p. 51, for Ed. Biot in Comptes Rendus, Vol. XIX. 1844, p. 822; Dr. A. T. Thompson, translation of Salverte’s “Philosophy of Magic,” 1847, Vol. II. chap. xi. p. 222 (note), wherein he alludes to Davies’ “Early History of the Mariner’s Compass”; “British Annual,” 1837; Saillant et Nyon, “Mémoires concernant l’Histoire,” Paris, 1788, Vol. XIII. pp. 234–235, giving chronological tables of the history of China, also p. 227 relative to Hoang-ti; P. Etienne Souciet, “Observations,” Paris, 1732, Vol. II. pp. 94–95.

Hoang-ti (Hoang, supreme king), third in the “Period of the Five Emperors” (Claude Augé, “Nouveau Larousse,” Vol. V. p. 134), regarded as the founder of the Chinese Empire, died at the age of 121, after reigning 100 years, B.C. 2598. Mailla (Joseph A. M. de Moyriac de) in his “Histoire ... traduite du Thoung-Kian-Kang-Mou,” Paris, 1777, Vol. I. p. 28, makes the latter date 2599, as do likewise, Dr. Hœfer (“Nouvelle Biographie Générale,” Paris, 1858, Vol. XXIV. pp. 817–819) and Pierre Larousse (“Grand Dict, du XIX^e Siècle,” 1873, Vol. IX. p. 317), but Michaud (“Biogr. Univer.,” 1857, Vol. XIX. pp. 476–477) says he reigned from 2698 to 2577 B.C., and, in “La Grande Encyclop.,” Vol. XX. pp. 157–158, we are told that the correct period is 2697–2597 B.C. (“L’art de vérifier les dates,” Paris, 1819, Vol. IV. p. 8).

The above-named work of Jean Baptiste Du Halde on China is considered the most complete account of that vast empire that has appeared in Europe (“New Gen. Biogr. Dict.,” London, 1850, Vol. VIII. p. 175). In any case, remarks Mr. Demetrius C. Boulger (“History of China,” London, 1881, Vol. I. pp. 4–5), it is incontestable that the individuality of Hoang-ti, who was the successor of “Fo-hi,” the first great Chinese emperor, is much more tangible than that of any of his predecessors.[1] By him, it is well recorded that the extensive Chinese territory (Empire) was divided into ten provinces, or Chow, each of which was subdivided into ten departments, or Tsee, and these again into ten districts, or Tou, each of them containing ten towns, or Ye.

B.C. 1110.—Tcheou-Koung is said to have at this date taught the use of the needle compass to the envoys from Youa-tchang. “As the ambassadors sent from Cochin China and Tonquin” (Humboldt, “Cosmos” Vol. V. p. 51) “were about to take their departure” (which was in the twenty-second cycle, more than 1040 years B.C.), “Tcheou-Koung gave them an instrument which upon one side always turned toward the north and on the opposite side to the south, the better to direct them upon their homeward voyage.[2] This instrument was called tchi-nan (chariot of the south), and it is still the name given to the compass, which leads to the belief that Tcheou-Koung invented the latter.” In his chapter on “The Magnetic Needle,” Humboldt says the apparatus was called fse-nan (indicator of the south).

Tcheou-Koung (Ki-tan) was Chinese Minister of State under both Von-Vang (the first emperor of the Tcheou dynasty, who ruled seven years) and Tsching-Vang (second emperor, who ruled thirty-seven years), and lived to be 100 years old. He was one of the most learned and most popular men China has ever known, and is spoken of to this day by the Chinese “with an admiration bordering upon enthusiasm” (Saillant et Nyon, “Mémoires concernant l’Histoire,” Paris, 1776, Vol. III. p. 37). The emperor Tsching-Vang caused Tcheou-Koung’s body to be interred near his father’s remains, after giving it imperial funeral honours.

References.—Du Halde, “Description de la Chine ...,” La Haye, 1736, Vol. I. p. 312; Klaproth, “Boussole,” p. 81; Azuni, “Boussole,” pp. 190–191; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” London, 1849, Vol. II. p. 628, and Vol. V. p. 52.

B.C. 1084.—According to Æschylus, the father of the Athenian drama, Agamemnon employed a line of optical signals to advise his queen Clytemnestra of the fall of Troy. Robert Browning’s translation, London, 1877, runs as follows:

“Troia, the Achaioi hold....

Hephaistos—sending a bright blaze from Idé

Beacon did beacon send, from fire the poster,

Hitherward: Idé to the rock Hermaian

Of Lemnos: and a third great torch o’ the island

Zeus’ seat received in turn, the Athoan summit.

And—so upsoaring as to stride sea over,

The strong lamp-voyager, and all for joyance—

Did the gold-glorious splendor, any sun like,

Pass on....”

Anna Swanwick thus renders Æschylus’ “Agamemnon,” London, 1881, p. 13:

“For Priam’s city have the Argives won.

*****

Hephaestos sending forth Idaian fire.

Hither through swift relays of courier flame....”

At page 193 of his “Agamemnon,” London, 1873, E. H. Plumptre refers to the system of posts or messengers which the Persian kings seem to have been first to organize, and which impressed the minds of both the Hebrews (Esther viii. 14) and the Greeks (Herod., viii. 98) by their regular transmission of the king’s edicts or of special news.

What of the passage from the celebrated patriarch Job (xxxviii. 35): “Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, ‘Here we are?’” (original Hebrew, “Behold us”). As has been remarked, this seems prophetic, when taken in connection with the electric telegraph.

The fire beacons are also alluded to by Plutarch in his Life of Quintus Sertorius; and Mardonius prepared fire signals to notify Xerxes, then at Sardis, of the second taking of Athens.

References.—“Le Théâtre des Grecs,” P. Brumoy, Paris, 1820, Vol. II. pp. 124–125; “Penny Encyc.,” Vol. XXIV. p. 145; Knight’s “Mechan. Dict.,” Vol. III. p. 2092.

For a decidedly original explanation of the beacon fires, read the introduction to “The Agamemnon of Æschylus,” translated by A. W. Verrall, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, England. See, likewise, reference to Act of Scottish Parliament, 1455, c. 48, made by Walter Scott in a note to his “Lay of the Last Minstrel”; “Archeologia,” London, 1770, Vol. I. pp. i-7.

B.C. 1068.—In the obscure age of Codrus, the seventeenth and last king of Athens, at about the period of the “Return of the Heraclidae” (descendants of Heracles—Hercules) to the Peloponnesus, the Chinese had magnetic carriages, upon which the movable arm of the figure of a man continually pointed to the south, and which it is said served as a guide by which to find the way across the boundless grass plains of Tartary. Humboldt states, besides, that, even in the third century of our era, Chinese vessels navigated the Indian Ocean under the direction of magnetic needles pointing to the south, and that, at pages xxxviii-xlii, Vol. I. of his “Asie Centrale,” he has shown what advantages this means of topographical direction, as well as the early knowledge and application of the magnetic needle, gave the Chinese geographers over the Greeks and Romans, to whom, for instance, even the true direction of the Pyrenees and the Apennines always remained unknown.

References.—Humboldt, “Cosmos,” London, 1849, Vol. I. p. 173, also his “Examen Critique de l’histoire de la Géographie,” Vol. III. p. 36; “Mœurs de Reg. Athen.,” lib. iii. cap. xi. For Codrus and the Heraclidæ, consult: Chambers’ “Encycl.,” 1889, Vol. III. p. 329 and Vol. V. 1890, p. 657; “Encycl. Britan.,” 9th ed., Edinburgh, Vol. VI. p. 107 and Vol. XI. p. 92; Hœfer, “Nouv. Biog. Gén.,” Vol. XI. p. 29.

B.C. 1033–975.—Solomon, King of Israel, son of King David and of Bathsheba, who, “in the Jewish scriptures, has the first place assigned to him among the wise men of the East,” is believed by many to have known the use of the compass. The Spanish Jesuit Pineda and Athanasius Kircher assert the same, and state that Solomon’s subjects employed it in their navigations. Others, notably Fuller, “Miscel.,” iv. cap. 19, and Levinus Lemnius, “De Occulta Naturae Miracula,” lib. iii, have even tried to prove that Solomon was the inventor of the compass, and that it was in his time used by the Syrians, Sidonians and Phœnicians, but the contrary has been shown by Henricus Kippingius in his “Antiq. Rom. de exped. Mar.,” lib. iii. cap. 6, as well as by Bochart, the geographer, in his “Géo. Sacr.,” lib. i. cap. 38.

References.—Venanson, “Boussole,” Naples, 1808, p. 34; Enfield, “History of Philosophy,” London, 1819, Vol. I. p. 40; Cavallo, “Magnetism,” 1787, p. 48; Ronalds’ “Catal.,” 1880, articles “Hirt” and “Michaelis,” pp. 246, 344.

B.C. 1022.—At this period the Chinese magnetic cars held a floating needle, the motions of which were communicated to the figure of a spirit whose outstretched hand always indicated the south. An account of these cars is given in the “Szuki” (Shi-ki), or “Historical Memoirs of Szu-ma-thsian” (Szu-matsien), which were written early in the second century B.C., and are justly considered the greatest of all Chinese historical works, containing, as they do, the history of China from the beginning of the empire to the reign of Hiao-wou-ti, of the Han dynasty.

References.—“Les peuples Orientaux,” Léon de Rosny, Paris, 1886, pp. 10, 168, 240; Johnson’s “Encyclopædia,” Vol. I. p. 929; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” Vol. II. 1849, p. 628; Klaproth, “Boussole,” 1834, p. 79, for further allusion to a passage in the Thoung-Kian-Kang-Mou, already referred to under date B.C. 2637.

B.C. 1000–907.—Homer, the greatest of epic poets, called the father of Greek poetry, and who, according to Enfield (“History of Philosophy,” Vol. I. p. 133), flourished before any other poet whose writings are extant, relates that the loadstone was used by the Greeks to direct navigation at the time of the siege of Troy.

The latter construction has been placed upon several passages in Homer, the most important being found in Book VIII of the “Odyssey.”

As this appears to be the first attributed allusion to the compass, it is deemed worth while to give herein several interpretations of the original Greek. The selections made are as follows:

“In wond’rous ships, self-mov’d, instinct with mind;

No helm secures their course, no pilot guides;

Like man intelligent, they plough the tides.

*****

Though clouds and darkness veil th’ encumber’d sky,

Fearless thro’ darkness and thro’ clouds they fly.”

Alexander Pope, “The Odyssey of Homer,” London, 1818, p. 135.

“...; for here

In our Phæacian ships no pilots are,

Nor rudders, as in ships of other lands.

Ours know the thoughts and the intents of men.

To them all cities and all fertile coasts

Inhabited by men are known; they cross

The great sea scudding fast, involved in mist

And darkness, with no fear of perishing

Or meeting harm.”

Wm. Cullen Bryant, “The Odyssey of Homer,” Boston, 1875, Vol. I. p. 174.

“For unto us no pilots appertain,

Rudder nor helm which other barks obey.

These ruled by reason, their own course essay

Sparing men’s mind ...

Sail in a fearless scorn of scathe or overthrow.”

Philip Stanhope Worsley, “The Odyssey of Homer,” London, 1861, Vol. I. p. 198.

“For all unlike the ships of other men,

Nor helm nor steersman have our country’s barks,

But of themselves they know the thoughts of men;

... and wrapped in gloom and mist

O’er the broad ocean gulfs they hold their course

Fearless of loss and shipwreck....”

Earl of Carnarvon, “The Odyssey of Homer,” London, 1886, p. 201.

“These marvellous ships, endued with human sense, and anticipating the will of their masters, flit unseen over the sea.”—“Homer’s Odyssey,” by W. W. Merry and James Riddell, Oxford, 1886, Vol. I. p. 353, note.

“That our ships in their minds may know it when they bring thee hither to hand,

Because amidst us Phæacians, our ships no helmsmen steer,

Nor with us is any rudder like other ships must bear,

But our keels know the minds of menfolk, and their will they understand,

*****

And therewith exceeding swiftly over the sea-gulf do they go,

In the mist and the cloud-rack hidden....”

“The Odyssey of Homer,” translated by Wm. Morris, London, 1887, p. 145.

The afore-named construction is not, however, alluded to by Matthew Arnold in his well-known lectures given at Oxford, nor by the Right Hon. Wm. Ewart Gladstone either in his “Juventus Mundi” or throughout his very extensive “Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age.”

Sonnini tells us that as this period is about the same as that of the Chinese chronicles, it can scarcely be doubted that the knowledge of both the polarity of the needle and of the use of the compass for navigation date back 3000 years (Buffon, “Terre,” Paris, An. VIII. p. 304).

This ill accords, however, with the views of others who have concluded, perhaps rightly, that the Greeks, Romans, Tuscans and Phœnicians[3] were ignorant of the directive property of the magnet, from the fact that none of the writings, more especially of Theophrastus, Plato, Aristotle, Lucretius and Pliny, make explicit allusion thereto.

References.—Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1859, Vol. V. p. 51; “Good Words,” 1874, p. 70; Brumoy, “Théâtre des Grecs,” 1820, Vol. I. p. 55; Pope’s translation of the “Iliad,” 1738, Vol. I. pp. 14, 20; Schaffner, “Telegraph Manual,” p. 19; also references under both the A.D. 121 and the A.D. 265–419 dates.

B.C. 600–580.—Thales of Miletus, Ionia, one of the “seven wise men of Greece” (the others being Solon, Chilo, Pittacus, Bias, Cleobolus and Periander), founder of the Ionic philosophy, and from whose school came Socrates, is said to have been the first to observe the electricity developed by friction in amber.

Thales, Theophrastus, Solinus, Priscian and Pliny, as well as other writers, Greek and Roman, mention the fact that when a vivifying heat is applied to amber it will attract straws, dried leaves, and other light bodies in the same way that a magnet attracts iron (“Photii Bibliotheca” Rothomagi, 1653, folio, col. 1040–1041, cod. 242).

Robert Boyle (“Philosophical Works,” London, 1738, Vol. I. p. 506, or London, 1744, Vol. III. p. 647) treats of different hypotheses advanced to solve the phenomena of electrical attraction, saying: “The first is that of the learned Nicholas Cabaeus (A.D. 1629), who thinks the drawing of light bodies by amber ... is caused by the steams which issue out of such bodies and discuss and expel the neighbouring air ... making small whirlwind.... Another is that of the eminent English philosopher, Sir Kenelm Digby (A.D. 1644), and embraced by the very learned Dr. Browne (A.D. 1646) and others, who believed that ... chafed amber is made to emit certain rays of unctuous steams, which, when they come to be a little cooled by the external air, are somewhat condensed ... carrying back with them those light bodies to which they happen to adhere at the time of their retraction.... Pierre Gassendi (A.D. 1632) thinks the same, and adds that these electrical rays ... get into the pores of a straw ... and by means of their decussation take the faster hold of it ... when they shrink back to the amber whence they were emitted ... Cartesius (Descartes, A.D. 1644) accounts for electrical attractions by the intervention of certain particles, shaped almost like small pieces of riband, which he supposes to be formed of this subtile matter harboured in the pores or crevices of glass.”

The ancients were acquainted with but two electrical bodies—amber (electron), which has given the denomination of the science; and lyncurium, which is either the tourmaline or the topaz (Dr. Davy, “Mem. Sir Humphry Davy,” 1836, Vol. I. p. 309). From a recent article treating of gems, the following is extracted: “The name of the precious stone inserted in the ring of Gyges has not been handed down to us, but it is probable that it was the topaz, whose wonders Philostratus recounts in the Life of Apollonius. An attribute of the sun and of fire, the ancients called it the gold magnet, as it was credited with the power of attracting that metal, indicating its veins, and discovering treasures. Heliodorus, in his story of Theagenes and Caricles, says that the topaz saves from fire all those who wear it, and that Caricles was preserved by a topaz from the fiery vengeance of Arsaces, Queen of Ethiopia. This stone was one of the first talismans that Theagenes possessed in Egypt. The topaz, at present, symbolizes Christian virtues—faith, justice, temperance, gentleness, clemency.”

References.—“Greek Thinkers,” by Theodor Gomperz, translation of L. Magnus, London 1901, p. 532; Zahn at A.D. 1696; Joannes Ruellius, “De Natura Stirpium,” 1536, p. 125; Paul Tannery, “Pour l’Histoire de la Science Hellène,” Paris, 1887, chap. iii. pp. 52–80; Becquerel, “Traité Expérimental,” Paris, 1834, Vol. I. p. 33; Pliny, “Natural History,” Bostock and Riley, 1858, book 37, chap. xii. p. 403; Pline, “Histoire Naturelle,” 1778, livre 37, chapitre iii.; Lardner, “Lectures,” 1859, Vol. I. p. 104; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. I. p. 182; Poggendorff, XI. p. 1088; Apuleius, Floridor, p. 361; Plato; Timæus, The Locrian; “De Anima Mundi ...,” 12, 15; Pauli (Adrian), Dantzig, 1614; Ulysses Aldrovandus, “Musaeum Metallicum,” pp. 411–412; Aurifabrum (Andreas), “Succini Historia,” ... Königsberg, 1551–1561; and, for the different names given to amber and the magnet by the ancients, consult, more especially, the numerous authorities cited by M. Th. Henri Martin (“Mém. présenté à l’Académie des Inscrip. et Belles Lettres,” première partie, Vol. VI. pp. 297–329, 391–411, Paris, 1860); J. Matthias Gessner, “De Electro Veterum” (Com. Soc. Reg. Sc. Gött., Vol. III for 1753, p. 67); Louis Delaunay, “Minér. des Anciens,” Part 2, p. 125 (Poggendorff, Vol. II. p. 540); Philip Jacob Hartmann, in Phil. Trans., Vol. XXI. No. 248, pp. 5, 49, also in Baddam’s Abridgments, Vol. III, first edition, 1739, pp. 322–366.

B.C. 600.—The Etruscans are known to have devoted themselves at this period to the study of electricity in an especial manner.[4] They are said to have attracted lightning by shooting arrows of metal into clouds which threatened thunder. Pliny even asserts that they had a secret method of not only “drawing it (the lightning) down” from the clouds, but of afterwards “turning it aside” in any desired direction. They recognized different sources of lightning, those coming from the sky (a sideribus venientia), which always struck obliquely, and others from the earth (infera, terrena), which rose perpendicularly. The Romans, on the other hand, recognized only two sorts, those of the day, attributed to Jupiter, and those of the night, attributed to Summanus (see Vassalli-Eandi at A.D. 1790).

This Vassalli-Eandi—like L. Fromondi—made special study of the very extensive scientific knowledge displayed by the ancients and, as shown in his “Conghietture ...” he concluded that they really possessed the secret of attracting and directing lightning. The above-named extracts concerning the Etruscans and Romans are made from the subjoined work of Mme. Blavatsky, wherein the following is likewise given.

Tradition says that Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, was initiated by the priests of the Etruscan divinities, and instructed by them in the secret of forcing Jupiter, the Thunderer, to descend upon earth. Salverte believes that before Franklin discovered his refined electricity, Numa had experimented with it most successfully, and that Tullus Hostilius, the successor of Numa, was the first victim of the dangerous “heavenly guest” recorded in history. Salverte remarks that Pliny makes use of expressions which seem to indicate two distinct processes; the one obtained thunder (impetrare), the other forced it to lightning (cogere). Tracing back the knowledge of thunder and lightning possessed by the Etruscan priests, we find that Tarchon, the founder of the theurgism of the former, desiring to preserve his house from lightning, surrounded it by a hedge of the white bryony, a climbing plant which has the property of averting thunderbolts. The Temple of Juno had its roofs covered with numerous pointed blades of swords. Ben David, says the author of “Occult Sciences,” has asserted that Moses (born about 1570 B.C.) possessed some knowledge of the phenomena of electricity. Prof. Hirt, of Berlin, is of this opinion. Michaelis remarks that there is no indication that lightning ever struck the Temple of Jerusalem during a thousand years: that, according to Josephus, a forest of points, of gold and very sharp, covered the roof of the temple, and that this roof communicated with the caverns in the hill by means of pipes in connection with the gilding which covered all the exterior of the building, in consequence of which the points would act as conductors. Salverte further asserts that in the days of Ctesias—Ktesias—India was acquainted with the use of conductors of lightning. This historian plainly states that iron placed at the bottom of a fountain, and made in the form of a sword, with the point upward, possessed, as soon as it was thus fixed in the ground, the property of averting storms and lightning.

“Ancient India, as described by Ktesias, the Knidian,” J. H. McCrindle, London, 1882, alludes, p. 68, to iron swords employed to ward off lightning. Reference is made to the pantarbe at pp. 7–8, 69–70, and to the elektron (amber) at pp. 20, 21, 23, 51, 52, 70, 86. See account of Ktesias in “Nouvelle Biogr. Génér.,” Vol. XII. pp. 568–571, and in “Larousse Dict.,” Vol. V. p. 614.

In his “Observations sur la Physique,” Vols. XXIV. pp. 321–323, XXV. pp. 297–303, XXVI. pp. 101–107, M. l’Abbé Rosier gives the correspondence between M. de Michaelis, Professor at Göttingen, and Mr. Lichtenberg, showing conclusively how the numerous points distributed over the surface of the roof of the Temple of Solomon effectively served as lightning conductors. Mr. Lichtenberg in addition shows that the bell tower located upon a hill at the country seat of Count Orsini de Rosenberg, was, during a period of several years, so repeatedly struck by lightning, with great loss of life, that divine service had to be suspended in the church. The tower was entirely destroyed in 1730 and soon after rebuilt, but it was struck as often as ten times during one prolonged storm, until finally a fifth successive attack, during the year 1778, compelled its demolition. For the third time the tower was reconstructed, and the Count placed a pointed conductor, since which time no damage has been sustained.

References.—Mme. Blavatsky, “Isis Unveiled,” 1877, Vol. I. pp. 142, 457, 458, 527, 528, and her references to Ovid, “Fast,” lib. iii. v. 285–346; Titus Livius, lib. i. cap. 31; Pliny, “Hist. Nat.,” lib. ii. cap. 53 and lib. xxviii. cap. 2; Lucius Calp, Piso; Columella, lib. x. v. 346, etc.; La Boissière, “Notice sur les Travaux de l’Académie du Gard,” part I. pp. 304–314; “Bell. Jud. adv. Roman,” lib. v. cap. 14; “Magas. Sc. de Göttingen,” 3^e année 5^e cahier; Ktesias, in “India ap. Photum. Bibl. Cod.,” 72. See also, De La Rive, “Electricity,” London, 1858, Vol. III, chap. ii. p. 90; “Encycl. Brit.,” 8th ed., article “Electricity”; Lardner, “Lectures,” II. p. 99; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. II. pp. 502–504; Boccalini, “Parnassus,” Century I. chap. xlvi. alluded to at p. 24, Vol. I. of Miller’s “Retrospect”; Gouget, “Origin of Laws,” Vol. III. book 3; Themistius, Oratio 27, p. 337; “Agathias Myrenaeus de rebus gestis Justiniani,” lib. v. p. 151; Dutens, “Origine des découvertes ...”; “Gentleman’s Magazine” for July 1785, p. 522; Falconer, “Mem. of Lit. and Phil. Soc. of Manchester,” Vol III. p. 278; “Sc. Amer.,” No. 7. p. 99; E. Salverte, “Phil. of Magic,” 1847, Vol. II. chaps. viii. and ix.; “Fraser’s Magazine” for 1839; H. Martin, Paris, 1865–6; P. F. von Dietrich, Berlin, 1784.

Caius Plinius Secundus. Page taken from earliest known edition of the Naturalis Historiae Venetiis 1469, of which there are only three known original vellum copies. These are now at Vienna, Ravenna and in the Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève, Paris.

Title page of Aristotle’s “De Naturali Auscultatione,” Paris 1542. The property of Dr. William Gilberd, when at Cambridge, inscribed with his name and that of Archdeacon Thomas Drant. (From the Library of Dr. Silvanus. P. Thompson.)

B.C. 588.—The earliest reliable record of messages transmitted by the sign of fire is to be found in the book of Jeremiah, vi. 1: “O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Beth-haccerem; for evil appeareth out of the north and great destruction.”

References.—Turnbull, “Electro-magnetic Telegraph,” 1853, p. 17; Knight’s “Mech. Dict.,” Vol. III. p. 2092; Penny and other Encyclopædias.

B.C. 341.—Aristotle, Greek philosopher, says (“Hist. of Anim.,” IX. 37) that the electrical torpedo causes or produces a torpor upon those fishes it is about to seize, and, having by that means got them into its mouth, feeds upon them. The torpedo is likewise alluded to, notably by (Claudius) Plutarch, the celebrated Greek moralist, by Dioscorides, Pedacius, Greek botanist, referred to in Gilbert’s “De Magnete,” Book I. chaps. i, ii, and xiv; by Galen, illustrious Roman physician, who is also frequently alluded to in “De Magnete,” and by Claudius Claudian, Latin poet, who flourished at the commencement of the fifth century. Oppian describes (“Oppian’s Halieuticks of the nature of fishes and fishing of the ancients in five books,” lib. ii. v. 56, etc., also lib. iii. v. 149) the organs by which the animal produces the above effect, and Pliny (“Nat. Hist.,” Book 32, chap. i) says: “This fish, if touched by a rod or spear, at a distance paralyzes the strongest muscles, and binds and arrests the feet, however swift.”

“The very crampe-fish tarped, knoweth her owne force and power, and being herself not benummed, is able to astonish others” (Holland “Plinie,” Book IX. chap. xlii.).

“We, here, and in no other place, met with that extraordinary fish called the torpedo, or numbing fish, which is in shape very like the fiddle fish, and is not to be known from it but by a brown circular spot about the bigness of a crown-piece near the centre of its back” (Ausonius, “Voyages,” Book II. chap. xii.).

References.—“Encycl. Metr.,” IV. p. 41; “Encycl. Brit.,” article “Electricity”; Jos. Wm. Moss, “A Manual of Classical Biography,” London, 1837, Vol. I. pp. 105–186, for all the Aristotle’s treatises, also Commentaries and Translations; Jourdain (Charles et Amable), “Recherches ... traductions latines d’Aristotle,” Paris, 1843; Fahie, “Hist. of Elec. Teleg.,” p. 170; “Sci. Amer.,” No. 457, pp. 7301, 7302; “Aristotle,” by Geo. Grote, London, 1872; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1859–1860, Vols. I and II passim, Vol. III. pp. 13–15, 29–30, 124; “Journal des Savants,” for Feb. 1861, March and May 1872, also for Feb., May and Sept. 1893.

Aristotle is alluded to in Gilbert’s “De Magnete,” at Book I. chaps. i. ii. vii. xv. xvi. xvii.; Book II. chaps. i.[5] iii. iv.; Book V. chap. xii.; Book VI, chaps. iii. v. vi.

B.C. 341.—Æneas, the tactician, believed to be the same Æneas of Stymphale alluded to by Xenophon, invented a singular method of telegraphing phrases commonly used, especially in war. These were written upon exactly similar oblong boards placed at the dispatching and receiving stations, where they stood upon floats in vessels of water. At a given signal the water was allowed to flow out of the vessel at each station, and, when the desired phrase on the board had reached the level of the vessel, another signal was made so that the outflow could be stopped and the desired signal read at the receiving station.

References.—Laurencin, “Le Télégraphe,” Chap. I; “Penny Encycl.,” Vol. XXIV. p. 145; “Michaud Bio.,” Paris, 1855, Vol. XII. pp. 459–460.

B.C. 337–330.—From the well-known work by Mme. Blavatsky (“Isis Unveiled,” New York, 1877) the following curious extracts are made regarding “The Ether or Astral Light” (Vol. I. chap. v. pp. 125–162):

“There has been an infinite confusion of names to express one and the same thing, amongst others, the Hermes-fire, the lightning of Cybelè, the nerve-aura and the fluid of the magnetists, the od of Reichenbach, the fire-globe, or meteor-cat of Babinet, the physic force of Sergeant Cox and Mr. Crookes, the atmospheric magnetism of some naturalists, galvanism, and finally, electricity, which are but various names for many different manifestations or effects of the same all-pervading causes—the Greek Archeus....” Only in connection with these discoveries (Edison’s Force and Graham Bell’s Telephone, which may unsettle, if not utterly upset all our ideas of the imponderable fluids) we may perhaps well remind our readers of the many hints to be found in the ancient histories as to a certain secret in the possession of the Egyptian priesthood, who could instantly communicate, during the celebration of the Mysteries, from one temple to another, even though the former were at Thebes and the latter at the other end of the country; the legends attributing it, as a matter of course, to the “invisible tribes” of the air which carry messages for mortals. The author of “Pre-Adamite Man” (P. B. Randolph, at p. 48) quotes an instance, which, being merely given on his own authority, and he seeming uncertain whether the story comes from Macrinus or some other writer, may be taken for what it is worth. He found good evidence, he says, during his stay in Egypt, that one of the Cleopatras actually sent news by a wire to all of the cities from Heliopolis (the magnificent chief seat of sun-worship) to the island of Elephantine, on the Upper Nile.

Further on, Mme. Blavatsky thus alludes to the loadstone:

“The stone magnet is believed by many to owe its name to Magnesia....” We consider, however, the opinion of the Hermetists to be the correct one. The word magh, magus, is derived from the Sanscrit mahaji, meaning the great or wise ... so the magnet stone was called in honour of the Magi, who were the first to discover its wonderful properties. Their places of worship were located throughout the country in all directions, and among these were some temples of Hercules, hence the stone—when it became known that the priests used it for their curative and magical purposes—received the name of Magnesian or Herculean stone. Socrates, speaking of it, says: “Euripides calls it the Magnesian stone, but the common people the Herculean” (Plato, “Ion”—Burgess—Vol. IV. p. 294). In the same Vol. I. of “Isis Unveiled” we are likewise informed that Electricity in the Norse legends is personated by Thor, the son of Odin, at Samothrace by the Kabeirian Demeter (Joseph Ennemoser, “History of Magic,” London, 1854, Vol. II.; J. S. C. Schweigger, “Introd. to Mythol. through Nat Hist.,” Halle, 1836), and that it is denoted by the “twin brothers,” the Dioskuri. Also that the celestial, pure fire of the Pagan altar was electrically drawn from the astral light, that magnetic currents develop themselves into electricity upon their exit from the body, and that the first inhabitants of the earth brought down the heavenly fire to their altars (J. S. C. Schweigger in Ennemoser’s “Hist. of Magic,” Vol. II. p. 30; Maurus Honoratus Servius, “Virgil,” Eclog. VI. v. 42).

B.C. 321.—Theophrastus, Greek philosopher, first observed the attractive property of the lyncurium, supposed by many to be the tourmaline, and gave a description of it in his treatise upon stones (“De Lapidibus,” sec. 53; or the translation of Sir John Hill, 1774, chap. xlix.-l., p. 123). This crystal was termed lapis lyncurius by Pliny in his “Nat. Hist.,” and lapis electricus by Linnæus in his “Flora Zeylanica” (U. Aldrovandus, “Mus. Metal.”; Philemon Holland, “The Historie of the World,” commonly called “The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus,” London, 1601).

Theophrastus and Pliny speak of this native magnet as possessing, like amber, the property of attracting straw, dried leaves, bark and other light bodies. The different sorts of loadstones, of which the best were blue in colour (as stated by Taisnier, Porta, Barthol. de Glanville and others), are thus alluded to by Pliny (“Nat. Hist.,” lib. xxxvi. cap. 16): “Sotacus describes five kinds: the Æthiopian; that of Magnesia, a country which borders on Macedonia; a third from Hyettus, in Boetia; a fourth from Alexandria, in Troas; and a fifth from Magnesia, in Asia” (Porta, “Natural Magick,” Book VII. chap. i.). He further says that iron cannot resist it; “the moment the metal approaches it, it springs toward the magnet, and, as it clasps it, is held fast in the magnet’s embrace.” It is by many called ferrum vivum, or quick iron.[6]

Claudian speaks of it as “a stone which is preferred to all that is most precious in the East.... Iron gives it life and nourishes it” (Claudian, Idyl V; Ennemoser, “Hist. of Magic,” Vol. II. p. 27).

Hippocrates, the father of medical science, calls it “the stone which carries away iron.”

Epicurus, an Athenian of the Ægean tribe, says: “The loadstone or magnet attracts iron, because the particles which are continually flowing from it, as from all bodies, have such a peculiar fitness in form to those which flow from iron that, upon collision, they easily unite.... The mutual attraction of amber and like bodies may be explained in the same manner.”

Hier. Cardan intimates that “it is a certain appetite or desire of nutriment that makes the loadstone snatch the iron....” (“De Subtilitate,” Basileæ, 1611, lib. vii. p. 381).

Diogenes of Apollonia (lib. ii. “Nat. Quæst.,” cap. xxiii.) says that “there is humidity in iron which the dryness of the magnet feeds upon.”

Cornelius Gemma supposed invisible lines to stretch from the magnet to the attracted body, a conception which, says Prof. Tyndall, reminds us of Faraday’s lines of force.

Lucretius accounts for the adhesion of the steel to the loadstone by saying that on the surface of the magnet there are hooks, and, on the surface of the steel, little rings which the hooks catch hold of.

Thales, Aristotle, Anaxagoras of Clazomenæ and the Greek sophist Hippias, ascribe the loadstone’s attractive virtue to the soul with which they say it is endowed. Humboldt (“Cosmos,” article on the Magnetic Needle) says soul signifies here “the inner principle of the moving agent,” and he adds in a footnote: “Aristotle (“De Anima,” I. 2) speaks only of the animation of the magnet as of an opinion that originated with Thales.” Diogenes Laertius interprets this statement as applying also distinctly to amber, for he says: “Aristotle and Hippias maintain as to the doctrine enounced by Thales.”

The native magnet appears to have long been known in nearly every quarter of the globe (Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1848, Vol. V., and Harris, “Rudimentary Magnetism,” Parts I and II).

In the Talmud, it is called achzhàb’th, the stone which attracts; in the Aztec, tlaihiomani tetl, the stone that draws by its breath; in the Sanscrit, ayaskânta, loving toward iron; in the Siamese, me-lek, that which attracts iron; in the Chinese, thsu-chy, love stone, also hy-thy-chy, stone that snatches up iron; in the French, l’aimant, and in the Spanish, iman, loving stone; in the Hungarian, magnet kö, love stone; while in the Greek it is called siderites, owing to its resemblance to iron.

For lyncurium of the ancients see Phil. Trans., Vol. LI. p. 394, and Hutton’s “Abridgments,” Vol. XI. p. 419.

Euripides (“Fragmenta Euripidis,” Didot edit., 1846, p. 757) called it lapis herculaneus, from its power over iron, and it was also known as lapis heracleus, doubtless because the best was, at one time, said to be found near Heraclea in Lydia (Plato, “Ion”—Burgess—Vol. IV. p. 294; see, besides, Blavatsky, “Isis Unveiled,” Vol. I. p. 130; Hervart (J. F.), Ingolstadii, 1623).

It has likewise been designated as follows: Chinese, tchu-chy, directing stone; Icelandic, leiderstein, leading stone; Swedish, segel-sten, seeing stone; Tonkinin, d’ànamtchûm, stone which shows the south; and, by reason of its great hardness, the Greeks called it calamita; the Italians calamita; the French calamite, also diamant; the Hebrews khalamish or kalmithath, and the Romans adamas, while adamant was the name given to the magnetic needle (compass) by the English of the time of Edward III (T. H. H. Martin, “De l’aimant, de ses noms divers et de ses variétés,” Paris, 1861; Buttmann, “Bemerkungen ... des Magnetes und des Basaltes,” 1808, Band II.; G. A. Palm, “Der Magnet in Alterthum,” 1867).[7]

“This stone adamas is dyuers and other than an Magnas, for yf an adamas be sette by yren it suffryth not the yren come to the magnas, but drawyth it by a manere of vyolence fro the magnas” (Trevisa, “Barth, de Prop, reb.,” XVI. 8).[8]

“The adamant cannot draw yron if the diamond lye by it” (Lyly, “Euphues,” sig. K. p. 10).

“Right as an adamound, iwys, can drawen to hym sotylly the yren” (“Rom. Rose”).

“In Ynde groweth the admont stone ... she by her nature draweth to her yron” (Caxton, “Myrrour,” II. vii. 79).

“The adamant placed neare any iron will suffer it to be drawen away of the lode stone” (Maplet, “Greene Forest,” I.).

“You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant; but yet you draw not iron; for my heart is true as steel” (Shakespeare, “Midsum. Night’s Dream,” Act. ii. sc. 1).

“As sun to day, as turtle to her mate, as iron to adamant” (Shakespeare, “Troilus and Cressida,” Act iii. sc. 2).

“The grace of God’s spirit, like the true load stone or adamant, draws up the yron heart of man to it” (Bishop Hall, “Occas. Medit.,” 52.).

“The adamant ... is such an enemy to the magnet that, if it be bound to it, it will not attract iron” (Leonardus, “Mirr. Stones,” 63).

According to Beckmann (Bohn, 1846, pp. 86–98) the real tourmaline was first brought from Ceylon (where the natives called it tournamal), at the end of the seventeenth century or beginning of the eighteenth century (see A.D. 1707).

It is classed by Pliny as a variety of carbuncle (lib. xxxvii. cap. vii.). John de Laet says (“De Gemmis,” 1647, 8vo, p. 155): “The description of the lyncurium does not ill agree with the hyacinth of the moderns.” Watson thinks likewise (“Phil. Trans.,” Vol. LI. p. 394) and so does John Serapion-Serapio Mauritanus—Yuhanna Ibn Serapion Ben Ibrahim (alluded to by Gilbert, “De Magnete,” Book I. chap. i.) in his “Lib. de simplicibus medicinis,” Argent. 1531, fol. p. 263; and Anselm Boèce de Boot, Flemish naturalist (“Gem. et Lap. Hist.,” Leyden, 1636); while Epiphanius (“De Gemmis,” XII.) states that he could find in the Bible no mention of the lyncurium, which latter he also believes to have been the hyacinth. On the other hand, the Duke de Noya Caraffa (“Recueil de Mém. Æpinus,” Petersb. 1762, 8vo, p. 122) considers the tourmaline to be identical with the theamedes of the ancients (Pliny, lib. xx. 50, and xxxvi., 25; Cardan, “De Subtilitate,” lib. vii. p. 386).

The betylos has doubtless been likewise named in this connection. Strabo, Pliny, Helancius—all speak of the electrical or electro-magnetic power of the betyli. They were worshipped in the remotest antiquity in Egypt and Samothrace as magnetic stones “containing souls which had fallen from heaven,” and the priests of Cybelè wore a small betylos on their bodies (Blavatsky, “Isis Unveiled,” Vol. I. p. 332).

References.—Enfield, “Dict. Phil.,” I. 152: Marbodeus Gallus, 1530–1531 Friburg, pp. 41 and 1539, Cologne, p. 39; Bostock’s “Pliny,” Book XXXVII. chap. xii.; Azuni, “Boussole,” 1809, p. 37; Venanson, “De l’invention de la Boussole Nautique,” Naples, 1808, pp. 27–29; Thomas, “Sc. An.,” 1837, p. 250. See also De Noya, “Encycl. Brit.,” 1855, VIII. p. 529, and Priestley, “History of Electricity,” 1775, p. 293; A. Cæsalpini, “De Metallicis,” Romæ, 1596; Th. Browne, “Pseudodoxia Epidemica,” 1650, p. 51; St. Isidore, “Originum,” lib. xvi. cap. 4; Corn. Gemma, “De Natura Divinis,” lib. i. cap. 7; Alb. Magnus, “De Mineral.,” lib. ii.; Joseph Ennemoser, “History of Magic,” Vol. II. pp. 27, 29, 51; Julius Solinus, “De Mirabilibus,” cap. 34; Johann S. T. Gehler, “Physik. Wörterbuch,” article “Magnetismus”; Joannes Langius, “Epistolarum Med.,” Epist. lxxv. For extract of Serapio’s work see Fernel’s “Coll. ... Greek Writers,” 1576. Consult likewise “Collection des anciens Alchimistes Grecs,” par M. Marcellin Berthelot, Paris, 1887, p. 252: siderites, aimant ou magnes, ferrum vivum, mâle et femelle—with references to Dioscorides, Pliny and Lexicon Alch. Rulandi.

For Pliny, see also “Manual of Classical Biography,” by Jos. Wm. Moss, London, 1837, Vol. I. pp. 473–504.

“For lyke as ye lodestone draweth vnto it yron: so doeth beneficence and well doyng allure all men vnto her.”—Udal. Markè, c. 5.

B.C. 285–247.—Ptolemy (Ptolemæus II, surnamed Philadelphus, or the brother-loving, son of Ptolemy Soter) ordered Timochares, the architect of the palace, to suspend the iron statue of Arsinoë in the temple of Pharos.

Although Pliny says (lib. xxxiv. cap. 14) that the statue was never completed owing to the death of both Ptolemy and his architect, Ausonius (Decimus Magnus), Roman poet (A.D. 309–393), asserts the contrary in his most important work, “Mosella” (vv. 314–320), translation of Mr. de la Ville de Mirmont, the first edition of which was published by Ugollet at Venice in 1499. Therein it is said: “Timochares (and not Dinochares, Dinocrates, Demochrates or Chirocrates) suspended the statue in mid-air (dans les hauteurs aëriennes du temple).... Under the ceiling-vault crowned with loadstones, a bluish magnet draws, by means of an iron hair, the young woman it holds in its embrace.”

“Dinocrates began to make the arched roofe of the temple of Arsinoë all of magnet, or this loadstone, to the end, that within that temple the statue of the said princesse made of yron, might seeme to hang in the aire by nothing” (Holland, “Plinie,” Book XXXIV. cap. 14).

King Theodoric alludes (Cassiodor, “Variar,” lib. i. epist. 45) to a statue of Cupid in the temple of Diana at Ephesus (one of the seven Wonders of the World), and St. Augustine (“De Civitate Dei,” XXI. 6) speaks of a bronze figure in the temple of Serapis at Alexandria, both suspended by means of a magnet attached to the ceiling.[9]

References.—De Mirmont, “La Moselle,” 1889, “Commentaire,” pp. 93 and 95; St. Isidore, “Originum,” lib. xvi. cap. 4; G. Cedrinus, “Compend. Hist.,” cap. 267; Knight’s “Mech. Dict.,” Vol. II. p. 1370; Knight’s “Cyclopædia,” Vol. I. p. 363; J. Ennemoser, “Hist. of Magic,” Vol. II. p. 35; Ath. Kircher, “Magnes,” 1643, lib. ii. prob. vi.; Dinochares, with translation of poem (Claudian, Idyl V) at pp. 61–62 of “Antique Gems,” by Rev. C. W. King, London, 1866; Vincent de Beauvais, “Spec. Mai,” Douai, 1624, Vol. I., lib. viii. cap. 34; Alb. Magnus, “De Mineralibus,” 1651, lib. ii. cap. 6, p. 243; Ausonio Lucius Ampelius, “Lib. Memorialis,” Paris, 1827, cap. viii.; T. H. Martin, “Observ. et Théories,” 1865, pp. 5–7; Thos. Browne, “Pseud. Epidem.,” 1658, Book II. p. 79; W. Barlowe’s “Magneticall Advertisements,” 1616, p. 45; “Simonis Maioli ... dies Caniculares, seu Colloqui, XXIII,” 1597, P. 782; Ruffinus, “Prosper d’Aquitaine”; Porta, “Magia Naturalis,” lib. vii. cap. 27; “Mosella,” in Wernsdorf’s “Poetæ Latini Minores”; E. Salverte, “Phil. of Magic,” 1847, Vol. II. p. 215.

B.C. 200.—Polybius, a Greek statesman and historian, describes (lib. x. cap. 45, “General History”) his optical telegraph—pyrsia—because the signals were invariably produced by means of fire-lights—an unquestionable improvement upon the modes of communication which had been previously suggested by Cleoxenes and Democritus. It consisted of a board upon which the twenty-four letters of the Greek alphabet were arranged in five columns, one space being vacant. The party signalling would hold up with his left hand a number of torches indicating the column from which the desired letter was to be taken, while in the right hand he would hold up to view as many torches as were necessary to designate the particular letter required.

References.—Rollin’s “Ancient History, 9th Dundee,” Vol VI. p. 321; “Emporium of Arts and Sciences,” Vol. I. pp. 296–299; “Penny Encycl.,” Vol. XXIV. p. 145. A good cut of the Polybius telegraph will be found at p. 2 of “Wireless Telegraphy,” by Wm. Maver, Jr., New York, 1904, and a very detailed account of all known fire signals is given at pp. 148 and 373, Vol. IV of “The History of Herodotus,” by Geo. Rawlinson, London, 1880.

B.C. 60–56.—Lucretius (Titus Lucretius Carus), Roman poet, alludes to the magnet in his poem “De Rerum Natura” (“The Nature of Things”), thus translated by Dr. Thomas Busby, London, 1813, Book VI. vv. 1045–1059:

“Now, chief of all, the Magnet’s powers I sing,

And from what laws the attractive functions spring.

(The Magnet’s name the observing Grecians drew

From the Magnet’s region where it grew.)

Its viewless, potent, virtues men surprise;

Its strange effects they view with wondering eyes,

When without aid of hinges, links or springs,

A pendent chain we hold of steely rings,

Dropt from the stone; the stone the binding source,

Ring cleaves to ring, and owns magnetic force;

Those held superior those below maintain;

Circle ’neath circle downward draws in vain,

While free in air disports the oscillating chain.

So strong the Magnet’s virtue as it darts

From ring to ring and knits the attracted parts.”

A rendering by Thomas Creech, A.M., London, 1714, Book VI. vv. 894–989, likewise deserves reproduction here:

“Now sing my muse, for ’tis a weighty cause.

Explain the Magnet, why it strongly draws,

And brings rough Iron to its fond embrace.

This, Men admire; for they have often seen

Small Rings of Iron, six, or eight, or ten,

Compose a subtile chain, no Tye between;

But, held by this, they seem to hang in air,

One to another sticks and wantons there;

So great the Loadstone’s force, so strong to bear!

*****

First, from the Magnet num’rous Parts arise,

And swiftly move; the Stone gives vast supplies;

Which, springing still in Constant Streams, displace

The neighb’ring air and make an Empty Space;

So when the Steel comes there, some Parts begin

To leap on through the Void and enter in.

*****

The Steel will move to seek the Stone’s embrace,

Or up or down, or t’ any other place,

Which way soever lies the Empty Space.”

The transmission of the magnetic attraction through rings or chains is also alluded to in Plato’s “Ion,” p. 533, D. E. Ed. Stephanus; by Pliny, lib. xxxiv. cap. 14; St. Augustine, “De Civitate Dei,” XX. 4; Philo, “De Mundi Opificio,” D. ed., 1691, p. 32; likewise by the learned Bishop Hall, “The English Seneca,” as follows: “That the loadstone should by his secret virtue so drawe yron to it selfe that a whole chaine of needles should hang by insensible points at each other, only by the influence that it sends downe from the first, if it were not ordinary, would seeme incredible” (“Meditations,” 1640, con. 3, par. 18).

References.—“Le Journal des Savants” for January 1824, p. 30. also for March 1833, June 1866 and December 1869; Plutarch, “Platon. Quæst.,” Vol. II. p. 1004, ed. par.; St. Isidore, “Etymologiarum, Originum,” lib. xvi., iv.; the Timæus (Bohn, 1849, Vol. II. p. 394); Platonis, “Io,” Lugduni, 1590, pp. 145, 146; “Houzeau et Lancaster, Bibliographie Générale,” Vol. I. part i. pp. 440–442; Geo. Burgess, tr. of Plato’s “Ion,” London, 1851, Vol. IV. pp. 294–295 and notes.

A.D. 50.—Scribonius Largus, Designationus, Roman physician, relates (Chaps. I. and XLI. of his “De Compositione Med. Medica”) that a freedman of Tiberius called Anthero was cured of the gout by shocks received from the electric torpedo, and Dioscorides advises the same treatment for inveterate pains of the head (“Torpedo,” lib. ii.). Other applications are alluded to by Galen (“Simp. Medic.,” lib. xi.; Paulus Ægineta, “De Re Medica,” lib. vii.; “Encycl. Met.,” article “Electricity,” IV. p. 41). See also Bertholon, “Elec. du Corps Humain,” 1786, Vol. I. p. 174.

Fahie states (“History of Electric Telegraphy,” p. 172) that, along the banks of the Old Calabar River, in Africa, the natives employ the electrical properties of the gymnotus for the cure of their sick children. They either place the ailing child close by the vessel of water containing the animal, or the child is made to play with a very small specimen of the fish.

References.—“La Grande Encycl.,” Vol. XXIX. p. 831; Humboldt, “Voyage Zoologique,” p. 88; “New Gen. Biogr.,” London, 1850, Vol. XI. p. 501; “Larousse Dict.,” Vol. XIV. p. 427; “Hœfer Biogr.,” Vol. XLIII. p. 654.

A.D. 121.—The Chinese knew of old the magnet, its attractive force and its polarity, but the most ancient record made of the peculiar property possessed by the loadstone of communicating polarity to iron is explicitly mentioned in the celebrated dictionary “Choue-Wen,” which Hin-tchin completed in A.D. 121, the fifteenth year of the reign of the Emperor Ngan-ti of the Han dynasty.

This dictionary contains a description of the manner in which the property of pointing with one end toward the south may be imparted to an iron rod by a series of methodical blows, and alludes to (“Tseu”) the “stone with which a direction can be given to the needle.”

“In Europe it has been thought that the needle had its chief tendency to the north pole; but in China the south alone is considered as containing the attractive power” (Sir G. Staunton, “Account of an Embassy,” London, 1797, Vol. I. p. 445).

Le Père Gaubil, who was sent to China in 1721 and died in Pekin 1759, says (“Histoire ... de la dynastie de Tang,” in “Mémoires concernant ...” Vol. XV) that he found, in a work written towards the end of the Han dynasty, the use of the compass distinctly marked to distinguish the north and the south. He also states, though doubtless erroneously, that that form was given it under the reign of Hian-Tsoung.

With reference to the magnetic attraction to the pole, it is well to bear in mind that no allusion whatsoever is made thereto by any of the writers of classical antiquity. This much has already been stated under date B.C. 1000–907. It certainly appears to have escaped the attention of the ancient Greeks and Romans, whose admiration, according to the learned French physician Falconet (“Dissert. Hist. et Crit.”), was excited solely by the attractive property of the loadstone.

The Rev. Father Joseph de Acosta (“Natural and Moral History of the Indies,” translation of C. R. Markham, lib. i. cap. 16) thus alludes to the above subject: “I finde not that, in ancient bookes, there is any mention made of the vse of the Iman or Loadstone, nor of the Compasse (aguja de marear) to saile by; I beleeve they had no knowledge thereof.... Plinie speakes nothing of that vertue it hath, alwaies to turne yron which it toucheth towards the north.... Aristotle, Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Lucretius, Saint Augustine, nor any other writers or Naturall Philosophers that I have seene, make any mention thereof, although they treat of the loadstone.”

Thomas Creech, in the notes to his translation of Lucretius’ “De Natura” says: “Nor indeed, do any of the ancients treat of this last (the directive) power of the loadstone ... and Guido Pancirollus justly places it among the modern inventions.”

References.—Klaproth, “La Boussole,” Paris, 1834, pp. 9, 10, 66; Azuni, “Boussole,” Paris, 1809, p. 30; “English Cycl.”—Arts and Sciences—Vol. V. p. 420; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1848, Vol. II. p. 628; John Francis Davis, “The Chinese,” London, 1836, Vol. II. pp. 221, etc., or the 1844 edition, Vol. III. p. 12; Geo. Adams, “Essay ...” 1785, p. 428.

A.D. 218.—Salmasius, in his Commentary upon Solinus, asserts that, at this date, amber was known among the Arabs as Karabe, or Kahrubá, a word which, Avicenna states, is of Persian origin and signifies the power of attracting straws; the magnet being called Ahang-rubá, or attractor of iron.

References.—“Encycl. Met.,” Vol. IV. p. 41; Fahie, “Hist. of Elec. Teleg.,” p. 29.