MAGNETIC MYTHS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10604, 5 November 1910, Page 2 (Supplement)

MAGNETIC MYTHS.

, Under this head a collection of fnl><' ! belief:; about magnets am! iiiHeiieiisiii, 1 ro:ne. absurd and others more plan.*, ! are printed in Popular Klcc'neiiy. : Some of them arc old and others insist even to'-our o'.vn iimc. Wi' >' ! ' ! "! : '.'Some of. those myths, seem/i«it« plausible considering the ,'cirimuc knowledge of the time, while ethers arc so far-fetched that we <•»! 'w™,' conceive of their having been tnkni seriously by tbo great thinkers «i llm day"For instance, w may very easily .excuse the- great Greek phil<«>P«'{ Aristotle for' believing that : i,li:hiiw<i magnetic rocks might -i't'.wi >"'P loaded with iron ; nails, even In >!"' I 1":" 1 of sinking them. Indeed. Ihi.s «» UI !" wai so strongly believed that, hi '' ; ' u "' vessels sailing for Tapiebanc t" l ' ,!l !* Aver:? replaced by wooden peg*. "; when he also maintains i.lial: seine I" 1 "': .stones attract gold, silver, copper. «"" tin, we CT.iilo at his wientliie 111:1:* acy; and when be says, lurllicr. 1.» there are even lodostonos which :itLrn« the -flesh and hone of ni.in, we imw piyb him down as repenting one " ,' numerous magnetic mvtli.s of h:s tunc. Must of these related to Kiippn-sed m}W netie rocks and manned'others to magnetic ores winch y.vre sal' to attract human flesh— co-callco He." magnets.' , . 1 '"Another and evidently popular iiijt" which we find seriously reported m »"■ ' ral books issued a.s late even us ™} sixteenth century, tells us. '.villi nil .senousness, how the ancient temple > Sera pis in 'Alexandria (KgypD hil " ' lodestono fixed in its root so "':'!'• iron statue was suspended in nii'l-n touching neither floor nor ceiling. . "Parallel to this is the legem tel'.l » Mohammed's-being magnetically *'- ponded within his tomb. Am.ilicr «'ii» of the sixteenth century eonteii'le'i J : as seriously that Venus was mug'"' ' hence her attracting Mars, uie »*•-'■" iron. .1- , . "Another series of myth's ■' l i , l ,:, . r ' 'j. originating in Sweden, sought l» • plain the fact that the compass nc" does not noint to the geographical n«r| pqje-of- tlie earth by telling of » ■'•V' I '"V ly magnetic island'to which it I"' in ™/ "Other myths, now equally as In with our presont-day knowledge 011 ■ ■ subjects, -were the Italian ones a the 'Ethiopian magnets' which i«« s ;' to repel iron; also the French about rubbing a diamond to ni.'ih , attract gold and about the eilert «_ garlic on the magnetic needle. ing nearer our own time we Iniu English writer telling of magnetic for wounds, wiiile another .\ u " M t | lt whole volume to refute the idea 1 • the-earth is-a gigantic globular mW'.■ At Amsterdam one of the scvente m 1 century authors held that cverjt nin the world had the magnetic p«« of attracting.or repelling * l, *. tl it lodicssun was the most magnetic ot all "< "Then when in 1677 a German worked out a. scheme of perpetual tiori by means of magnets, we ns» - flf connecting link between the rn.Mi , the past and of the present. i' or y to -.this' day there, arc sonic in ' .;, country unscientific enough t0 '•,,.,. perpetual, motion possible ami .""'".,,5 tive enough to. look to magnetic an for realising this sole survivor ot series of myths." _■ ,

In China the natives do not" f parters, 'for they tie the their trousers closely aI0U11 " „ r an ankles. They are willing to ; w<w • American garter on the outsiae, ever, as an ornament.