The Sun.
London, England, 1827-11-08 00:00:00

THE MAii.Ltiliß'S COMPASS.

The attractive property of the load-stone has
-t-,e4a known ft: all aves. Thies, surprised with
so constant an tact, ascribed to it a soul.
Plate, Aristotle, and Pliny, have each made
znention of this attraction, but nJither they, nor
any other, down to the eleventh eentutT,- Or even
to the beginning of the twelfth, knew that the
load-stone, suspended, or floating on the water,
by means of a piece of cork, always turned one
and the same point towards the north.
These two properties, of attracting iron, and
turning towards the north, being known, some
virtuosi repeated the experiments, by floating, in
z vessel of water, a piece of iron and a load-stone
upon corks, that they might meet with no ob-
!t.taxle they observed that when the piece of
iron was rubbed upon the load-stone, it acquired
the nature of turning to the north, and of at-
tracting, as load-stones did, needles and small
pieces of iron. From one experiment to anothebyr
they came to the laying a needle touched
the load-stone on two bits of straw upon water,
CYhich they observed constantly turned to the
north. these were in. a fair way to the grand
diaco-,-ery. but had not yet attained to the know-
ledge of what is called the compass.. But this
experiment being at last applied to navigation, a
post of the awellth century acquaints us, that the
,French pilots wade use of a needle rubbed upon
a load-stone, which they called la marinette.—
soon after; instead of floating these needles
upon the surface of the water, upon straw or
cork., which the motion of the ship agitated too
;much, an intelligent mariner thought of sus-
'entiinv the needle exactly in its centre, upon an
that it might have full liberty •
irnln Dyeablec'
to
play and turn towards the Pole. Another
in the fourteenth century, thought of
whoyirik,gmaort,ver
needle a very light circle of
the four cardinal points,
pasteboard, on which?
and the c
principal winds,
,were marked out, and
the wholee cirle divided into ,•30 degrees of the
horizon. The little machine suspendd in a box,
which box itself was hung pretty nearly
like the mariner's lamps, answered the hopes
of the inventor, for, however the ship might
change its situation, the needle always
'faithfully turning to tb•? north, distinguished
on the pasteboard by a flower de lace, and the
other points of the wind marked as aforesaid,
pointed out the course that was held, and the
yomis they were to guard against. Thus, at last,
the mariner's compass was invented ; but after
such a manner, that it is hard to decide by whom
or in what nation. Yet this is certain, the Eng-
lish may justly lay claim to the honour of hay-
ing brought it to perfection, by the manner of
mispending the box which holds the needle.-
- They say in their favour, that the names which
- the compass bears were received from them h)
all other nations, at the tirae.that they commie'
grated the compass to them brought to a cont.
-,,;,dius form ; that it is
called the Sea Com.

pass, or Circle of Mariners, from the two English
words, Mariner's Compass ; and from the English
word box, the Italians have made their " hossola;"
as they change the name of Alexander to
Alexandra.

Others endeavour to give the honour of this
invention to the Chinese, hut as to this very day
they float their needle on a cork, it is without any
just foundation.—Notes of a Bookworm.