I pulled this article from a newspaper published in 1920 because it touches on a bit of the history of the magnet, and it also covers the old story that a huge magnet mountain existed in the north. This magnet mountain was, it was told, capable of pulling the nails out of ships, and so sailors had to be careful to not go near the magnet mountain.
Magnetism
A Brief History and Some Facts About Magnet Elements that Predominate to Aid Solution
A study of the history of the magnet takes us back to medieval times. No doubt natural magnets were known to the ancients, yet we find the first mention of natural magnets made by the Greeks in their literature between the 11th and 12th centuries. In Thessaly, a region in medieval Greece, was a district known as Magnesia, in modern times called Manissa. Here it was that the first natural magnets were found in the form of a mineral. In fact, a natural magnet is nothing more nor less than a piece of iron ore which possesses the property of magnetism. You will note the term “natural magnet” in preference to the simple word “magnet.” This is in order to distinguish between the natural magnet and the artificial magnet, of which mention will be made later.
A natural magnet is also sometimes known as a lodestone or loadstone. The origin of this word is rather obscure, but an effort to trace its etymology leads to the following. The word lode in old Anglo Saxon meant a path or a road. In referring to the North Star what’s more natural than to say lodestar, since this star showed the direction or road to travelers? The word lodestar is still applied to a guiding star, particularly to the North or polestar. Later, when the magnetic needle was found to point to the North Star, then the magnet, of which the needle was made known as lodestone, since was it not a stone which pointed the road and the direction? The above etymological chart of the word lodestone is not quoted from any authority, but is the writer’s own conclusion of the probable origin of the word and may well be incorrect, yet is offered on its own merit for what it is worth.
When magnets were first discovered they were regarded with much superstition. Their peculiar power of attracting certain other metals was considered super-natural. The tales and legends which surrounded its phenomenal power were many. A fair example of the nature of this belief may be gained from the following tale.
It was said, so the story goes, that in a far off sea, under unknown skies, there towered a mountain high above the water, and this mountain was one immense magnet. Its power was tremendous. When a ship, driven by adverse winds and currents, approached within a certain radius of this monster power, its magnetism attracted the ship towards its precipitous shores, nor could all the efforts of the mariners do aught to turn the ship to another course. As the fated ship approached the magnet mountain, iron implements and fittings on board the vessel were drawn through the air to the mountain. Finally, as the ship drew still closer, the nails and bolts were drawn from the sides and keel of the ship until it collapsed, leaving its unfortunate crew to perish in the bottomless sea. This tale was known to the sailors of Columbus on the voyage to the New World and caused no little anxiety on their part.
When it was found that a thin bar of magnesia or a magnetic needle balanced on a pivot pointed the direction of the North Star, it was believed that the star itself was an immense magnet. It was thought that the pieces of magnesia found on our earth were fragments of the star which had fallen in the form of meteors and still retained an affinity for the planet from which they originated.
Source: The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.), 08 Jan. 1920.
