De Magnete [Paperback]

William Gilbert (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1991

From the first great experimental scientist: the classic text, first published in Latin in 1600, summarizing all then known about magnetism and electricity, offering invaluable insights into the origins of modern science. Topics include phenomena of magnetism, variation in the compass, and concept of Earth as a giant magnet.

Product Details

• Paperback: 427 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (June 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 048626761X
• ISBN-13: 978-0486267616
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #251,962 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Partial synopsis, June 4, 2009

By 

Viktor Blasjo - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: De Magnete (Paperback)

Condemnation of the past. "What business have I in that vast ocean of books? ... By the more silly ones among them the crowd and most impudent people get intoxicated [and] declare themselves to be philosophers ... [But] neither Greek arguments nor Greek words can assist in finding truth." (Preface)

Examples of "old-womanish" (p. 6) theories. "For example, they asserted that a loadstone rubbed with garlic does not attract iron; nor when it is in the presence of a diamond. The like of this is found in Pliny and Ptolemy's Quadripartitum; and errors have steadily been ... accepted---even as evil and noxious plants ever have the most luxuriant growth---down to our day, being propagated in the writings of many authors who, to the end that their volumes might grow to the desired bulk, do write and copy all sorts about ever so many things about which they know naught for certain in the light of experience." (I.I, pp. 2-3).

The same refuted by experiment. "[The claim regarding diamonds] is contrary to our magnetic rules; and hence we made the experiment ourselves with seventy-five diamonds in presence of many witnesses ... yet never was in granted to me to see the effect mentioned" (III.XIII, p. 218).

This being an exception. Gilbert discussed the case of the diamonds because it happened to serve his purposes exceptionally well, not because he was determined to refute all false theories. Theories he did not feel like refuting he was happy to "leave for roaches and moths to pray upon" (II.III, p. 104).

"That the globe of the earth is magnetick." The primary evidence being that the behaviour of a compass needle in various places around the earth is precisely mirrored by its behaviour in the vicinity of a spherical loadstone. Even the compass' deviations from perfect north can be accounted for on this theory. For the earth is not perfectly spherical, and if one cuts out "oceans" in the spherical loadstone one finds that the needle deviates towards the "continents," as in reality (IV.II).

Astrology tacitly approved. This in an analogy regarding how "smelted iron" is magnetised by the earth's magnetic field. "For as when the babe is given forth to the light from the mother's womb and gains the power of respiration and certain animal functions, and as the planets and other heavenly bodies, according to their positions in the universe and according to their configuration with the horizon and the earth, do then impart to the new-comer special and peculiar qualities; so a piece of iron, while it is being wrought and lengthened, is affected by the general cause, the earth, to wit; and while it is coming back from the fiery state to its original temperature it becomes imbued with a special verticity according to its position." (III.XII, p. 216).

Earth's rotation, planetary motion caused by magnetism (Book VI). This theory is quite worthless and does not use the previously developed magnetic theory in any meaningful way.