A CORRECTION.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12601, 5 September 1910, Page 8

A CORRECTION.

To the Editor

Sir, —I am much • surprised to see "Civis Romanus" claiming tlie mariner's compass as having been invented by a French monk in the 12th century. The invention was formerly attributed to the Chinese, but for nearly a century this has been known to be .>. mistake. The compass was used by the ancient Phoenicians. T\vo forms of it have been found in Etruscan tombs dating from before the foundation of Rome. One is a thin 'lisc of brenze, with eight points at equal distances round its margin, and there is a small hole in the centre, by which it was suspended from a string. The'other is,a sort of deep saucer of thin bnuize, with the eight points, which was fl ated on water when in use. In each case one of the points encloses a smaJL piece of lodestone, to make it point" io the north. .Both forms are figured iti Sir William Beetham's "Etruria Cottica," published . about 1840. It is well that the truth should be known a bout such matters.—l am, etc.,

H. C. FIELIX