Gilbert: Direction is not produced by attraction
Tuesday, May 10th, 2011* [ZB Magnet 2] William Gilbert, De Magnete (London: Petrus Short, 1600), Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Alte Drucke und Rara, XVI.28, p.162.
* [ZB Magnet 2] William Gilbert, De Magnete (London: Petrus Short, 1600), Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Alte Drucke und Rara, XVI.28, p.162.
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.
[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.
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.
[ZB Magnet 2] William Gilbert, De Magnete (London: Petrus Short, 1600), Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Alte Drucke und Rara, XVI.28, p. 130f.
[ZB Magnet 2] William Gilbert, De Magnete (London: Petrus Short, 1600), Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Alte Drucke und Rara, XVI.28, p. 96.
(more…)
Your mouth is full of teeth, sharp points on my mouth.
Your mouth is too small, I whisper, giggling, into your mouth.
Your mouth is sucking all the air out of my mouth.
Your mouth is a shark.
All points of me magnetised by you.
One half of me tending obliquely towards one half of you.
Cut to the quick, pierced to the core,
Your green heart, an apple, waiting to be bitten.
This, the middle of our lives, here, where it is hottest.