An item has appeared recently in several papers, stating that New York is a highly magnetized city--that the elevated railroad, Brooklyn Bridge cables, etc., are all highly magnetized. As this might convey to the general reader the impression that the magnetism thus exhibited was peculiar to New York city, and as many of your subscribers look anxiously for your answers to numerous questions put for the elucidation of apparent, scientific mysteries, I have thought that perhaps a statement in plain language of experiments made at various times, to elucidate this subject, might, in conjunction with a diagram, serve to explain even to those who have not made a special study of science a few of the interesting phenomena connected with TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM. Some of the first experiments I made, while professor at the Indiana State University, were detailed in the March and August numbers, 1872, of the _Journal_ of the Franklin Institute, and I think showed conclusively that the earth, by induction, renders all articles of iron, steel, or tinned iron magnetic; possessing for the time being polarity, after they have been in a settled position for a short time. In Dr. I. C. Draper's "Year Book of Nature" for 1873, mention is made of the experiments in which I found every rail of a N. and S. railroad exhibiting polarity. The same statements were repeated in one of a series of articles sent by me to the _Indianapolis Daily Journal_, dated Jan. 20, 1877, in which I used the following language: "Every article of iron or steel or tinned iron, by the earth's induction, becomes magnetic. Thus, if we examine our stoves, or a doorlock, or long vertical hinge, or even a high tin cup, by holding a delicate magnetic needle in the hand near those objects, we find the earth has, by induction, attracted to the lower end of the stove utensils, etc., the opposite magnetism from its own; and repelled to the upper end of the stove, etc., the same magnetism which exists in our northern hemisphere. Consequently, the bottom of the stove, or of the hinge, cup, etc., will attract the south (or unmarked end) of our needle; while the top of the stove, etc., attracts the north, or marked end of our magnetic needle. If we apply our needle to the T rails of a N. and S. railroad, we not only find that the lower flange of the rail attracts the S. end of our needle, while the upper flange attracts the N. end of our needle, but we also find, where the two rails come nearly together (say within two inches), that the N. end of the rail attracts the S. end of our needle, while the S. end of the rail attracts the N. (or marked) end of our magnetic needle." [Illustration: MAGNETISM ON RAILWAYS.]