The mirror., 1922-01-19

serves. (lt would seem as though we have
here the first instance in history of the use
of "poison gas" or at least of chemical
fumes of some sort, in warfare).
Then the Emperor Tau-ti-yu-wang
caused chariot to be made, on which the
wooden figure of man pointed his right
arm constantly toward the south. With
the aid of this chariot the emperor led his
cohorts through the mist and found and
vanquished the troops of the troublesome
Tchiyeou.
The figure on the chariot was magne-
tized and it pointed steadily to a great
mountain of loadstone, supposed to be
somewhere in the sea to the south of Asia
This incident bears date 1854 years before
Christ, or some three centuries before Noah
set out on his memorable voyage, to drift
forty days and forty nights on trackess
sea without the aid of mariners compass.
But perhaps this conclusion is hasty. The
ark may have been guided by compass
for all we know to the contrary.
,
most important property - polarity - was
discovered, but it undoubtedly was famil-
lar to the Chinese previous to the chariot
incident just related. They seemed to
have knowledge of this property, for they
were confident in following cardinal
points designated by the. arm pointing
south. They believed an iron figure so
magnetized always would point to a place
south of their own country.
Humboldt allows that the Chinese knew
of the polar properties of loadstone at
least thousand years before our era, and
he describes magnetic chariots that were
used to guide travellers across the great
plains of Tartary. He also says that as
early as the third century, A. D., they
used the compass for guiding vessels at
sea. From the Chinese the Arabs in all
probability learned to use the magnetic
needle, and in this roundabout fashion it
was brought to Europe.
Flavio Gioio, of Amalphi, Italy, i'm
proved the Arabs compass in 1900 by sus-
pending the needle, and for this he is
given credit generally for inventing the
mariners compass. But this contention
must give way after even casual investi-
cation of the subject. He simply substi-
tuted carefully balanced needle for one
floating on pieces of cork or straw in a
vessel of water.
A Chinese encyclopedia of 700 B. c.
gives very good description of the COM
pass, written in such way as to preclude
all doubt that the contrivance long had
been known to the Chinese at that date.
Those who have read the arabian
Nights" will recall what befel Sinbad the
Sailor when his ship got too near the
mountain of loadstone and all the nails
were drawn from the planks, leaving the
wrecked boat to the mercy of the waves.
Ptolemy also speaks of great magnetic
mountain in the Chinese seas, and says it
drew ships toward it unless they were
made without iron and carried no iron
aboard. Loadstone and its properties were
known to Hesiod and Aristotle, and Pliny
mentions it, saying that ignorant persons
called it "ferrum vivum"-quick iron.
There is curious passage in one OF
Cardinal de Vitry's writings. He visited
Palestine in the thirteenth century, and
thus speaks of what we today know as the
mariners compass: "The iron needle after
contact with the loadstone, constantly turns
to the north star, which, as the axis OF