for amber, and Magnetism from Magnes, the name of the shepherd, or, more likely, from the city of Magnesia, in Lydia, where the stone occurred.
These properties of amber and lodestone appear to have been widely known. The Persian name for amber is káhrubá, attractor of straws, and that for lodestone ahang-rubá attractor of iron. In the old Persian romance, The Loves of Majnoon and Leila, the lover sings—
'She was as amber, and I but as straw:
She touched me, and I shall ever cling to her.'
The Chinese philosopher, Kuopho, who flourished in the fourth century, writes that, 'the attraction of a magnet for iron is like that of amber for the smallest grain of mustard seed. It is like a breath of wind which mysteriously penetrates through both, and communicates itself with the speed of an arrow.'[1] Other electrical effects were also observed by the ancients. Classical writers, as Homer, Cæsar, and Plutarch, speak of flames on the points of javelins and the tips of masts. They regarded them as manifestations of the Deity, as did the soldiers of the Mahdi lately in the Soudan. It is recorded of Servius Tullus, the sixth king of Rome, that his hair emitted sparks on being combed; and that sparks came from the body of Walimer, a Gothic chief, who lived in the year 415 A.D.
During the dark ages the mystical virtues of the lodestone drew more attention than those of the more precious amber, and interesting experiments were made with it. The Romans knew that it could attract iron at some distance through an intervening fence of wood, brass, or stone. One of their experiments was to float a needle on a piece of cork, and make it follow a
- ↑ Lodestone was probably known in China before the Christian era.
