* [ZB Magnet 2] William Gilbert, De Magnete (London: Petrus Short, 1600), Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Alte Drucke und Rara, XVI.28, p.150.
(more…)

The agreement of shapes like a parliament of clowns.
Cats’ whiskers, tumbrils, tendrils.
Plants are agreeable, they point towards the sun,
sunning themselves like cats.

In the back room, the weak spot spreads like a rumour.
The floor is made of earth, didn’t you know?
If you wait, and ask nicely, I can show you the way to dig
yourself out, or in, depending on climate and skin condition.

The red-eye flight of the calibrarian.
Postulate, pustule, preposterous.
Brimming with the unequal power of water,
the lake refuses to lie.

Stones disagree. They grow heavy, cold, relapse
into stony silences. They brood insects.
Hating the hand with a vengeance they shut out the sun,
seal the mouths of caves, arrive at the shape of the burial mound.

Sampurna Chattarji

But here we notice another curious fact … * [ZB Magnet 2] William Gilbert, De Magnete (London: Petrus Short, 1600), Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Alte Drucke und Rara, XVI.28, p. 133.

(more…)

Judith Albert

Magnetic needles, pointers, rods or wire have a tendency toward the earth’ s centre, the so  called magnetic dip or inclination. Inclination variers. Here a magnetic wire in a cork shows its dip in a bowl filled with water. [ZB Magnet 2] William Gilbert, De Magnete (London: Petrus Short, 1600), Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Alte Drucke und Rara, XVI.28, p. 203.

(more…)

Long loadstone with versoria. Versoria deviate according to the distance from the middle or equator of the loadstone (CD). The deviations are greater the greater the distance of the versoria is from the equator. [ZB Magnet 2] William Gilbert, De Magnete (London: Petrus Short, 1600), Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Alte Drucke und Rara, XVI.28, p. 164.

[ZB Magnet 2] William Gilbert, De Magnete (London: Petrus Short, 1600), Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Alte Drucke und Rara, XVI.28, p. 155.
AB is a terrella imperfect in parts and of unequal power on the circumference. The needles H and L vary, because they are placed in a decayed part and incline towards the sound parts (where the needles C, D, E, F are placed). Needle O does not deviate because it is placed in the middle of the decayed part.

(more…)

Iron will obtain north-south direction when it is hammered and heated properly: “Let the smith stand facing north, with back to the south, so that as he hammers the red-hot iron it may have a motion of extension northward.” (Gilbert, De Magnete (translated by Mottelay) p. 211ff) [ZB Magnet 2] William Gilbert, De Magnete (London: Petrus Short, 1600), Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Alte Drucke und Rara, XVI.28, p. 139.

(more…)

Judith Albert

[ZB Magnet 2] William Gilbert, De Magnete (London: Petrus Short, 1600), Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Alte Drucke und Rara, XVI.28, p. 130f.

(more…)