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Magnes, Loadstone

Lyncurium, Jacinth Page of 453 Magnes, Loadstone Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
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MAGNES.
The Loadstone, or Magnetic Iron-ore, is a compound of Protoxide and Peroxide of Iron. It is black, heavy, and compact ; suffi­ciently hard to take a good polish, which gives the surface a metallic lustre, like iron polished with black lead. Pliny (xxxvi. 25), on the authority of Nicander, states that the Magnet was so-called after the herdsman, who first discovered it in Mount Ida by its attracting the nails in his soles, and the ferule of his staff, as he walked over the bed. Pliny notices the great abun­dance of it in Spain ; in fact, the richest iron-mines at present worked, those of Elba and Sweden, consist entirely of Magnetic ore. Sotacus divided it into five species : the Ethiopian, the best, and sold for its weight in silver ; the second, found in Magnesia of Macedonia ; the third, in Hyettus of Boeotia, redder in appear­ance than the second ; the fourth, in Alexandria Troas ; the fifth, in Magnesia of Asia ; the worst of all being white and like a pumice-stone. That of Al. Troas was black and but feebly attractive, and was therefore considered the female of the species. It had been observed that the blacker they were (i. e. possessing more metallic, steely, lustre) the more powerful the Magnet.
It is a singular omission of Theophrastus that he should make no mention of this stone, though described by his master Aris­totle accurately enough ; his Magnelis would appear to be some kind of alabaster from his notice (41) : " Some stones admit of being sawn, others of being carved, or turned in the lathe as the stone Magnetis, which holds a high rank for its beauty, and is by many much admired on account of its resemblance to silver, though it really has no affinity to that metal."
The singular nature of the Loadstone excited the wonder of the ancient naturalists. Pliny exclaims, " What is more inert than the rigidity of a stone? Yet lo! Nature hath given it
Lyncurium, Jacinth Page of 453 Magnes, Loadstone
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