This was the case with the mariner's compass. It was
believed for many years that it was first invented by an Italian named
Amalfi, A.D. 1302. In that interesting work, Goodrich's "Life of
Columbus," we find a curious history of the magnetic compass prior to
that time, from which we collate the following points:
"In A.D. 868 it was employed by the Northmen." ("The Landnamabok," vol.
i., chap. 2.) An Italian poem Of A.D. 1190 refers to it as in use among
the Italian sailors at that date. In the ancient language of the
Hindoos, the Sanscrit--which has been a dead language for twenty-two
hundred years--the magnet was called "the precious stone beloved of
Iron." The Talmud speaks of it as "the stone of attraction;" and it is
alluded to in the early Hebrew prayers as Kalamitah, the same name given
it by the Greeks, from the reed upon which the compass floated. The
Phoenicians were familiar with the use of the magnet. At the prow of
their vessels stood the figure of a woman (Astarte) holding a cross in
one hand and pointing the way with the other; the cross represented the
compass, which was a magnetized needle, floating in water crosswise upon
a piece of reed or wood.
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