Bibliographical history of electricity & magnetism, chronologically arranged
History
Bibliographical history of electricity & magnetism, chronologically arranged
Electricity -- History; Electricity -- History -- Bibliography; Magnetism -- History; Magnetism -- History -- Bibliography; Science, Medieval
5. The magnetic effects acquired by an old piece of iron
continually exposed to the air have also been alluded to. Now,
however, natural philosophers have observed that this iron
exposed for a length of time in the magnetic meridian points
with greater readiness to the above-mentioned quarters. They
have, moreover, ascertained that iron when heated and afterwards
cooled in water is more sensitive to magnetization: which is
directly opposed to the opinion of F. P. S.
Bertelli further remarks that, from information given in the
manuscript, it is seen that Sarpi was at that time acquainted with the
greater number of the magnetic phenomena referred to by Porta, and
developed by Gilbert, viz.:
1. The reciprocal action of magnets;
2. The action of magnets on iron;
3. The manifestation of magnetic activity about the poles
(sphere of action or field of force);
4. The _Maximum_ and the _Minimum_ of the attractive
force of magnets on iron, according to the size of the latter;
5. The inversion of polarity which may arise in the
magnetization of needles--(but not the corresponding
poles--the magnetic variation or declination--Petrus
Peregrinus, A.D. 1269--yet not the variation of the
variation--Henry Gellibrand, A.D. 1635--nor the dip or
inclination--Robert Norman, A.D. 1576).
6. The magnetic properties acquired by iron constantly exposed
to the air.
After detailing the observations of Giulio Cesare Moderati, Filippo
Costa (Costæus) of Mantua, Ulysses Aldrovandi, Francesco Acoromboni,
Luigi Matteini, Father Garzoni and Father Cabæus concerning the
magnetized ironwork of the belfry of the church of St. Augustine at
Arimini (the parochial church of St. John the Baptist, which at that
time, 1586, belonged to the monks of St. Augustine) and relative to the
iron rail in the belfry of the tower of St. Laurence at Rome, Bertelli
says: “From all that precedes, we gather at all events, that the fact
of the spontaneous magnetization of iron was well known in Italy before
Sarpi, Porta and Gilbert. This, Gilbert, and still better Cabæus,
explained as the influence of terrestrial magnetism. However, with
regard to the observations of the needle’s deviation made by Father
Garzoni at Rome, we can, without having attributed it, as does Cabæus,
to the magnetization of pieces of iron concealed in its wall, explain
it, as is done in the new and important experiments of the illustrious
professor Silvestro Gherardi, who attributes it to the magnetic
polarity of the _Mattoni_ [bricks] in the structure itself.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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