Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n
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A48701
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A journey to Paris in the year 1698 by Dr. Martin Lister.
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Lister, Martin, 1638?-1712.
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1699
(1699)
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Wing L2525; ESTC R14927
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102,964
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264
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Magnetick Matter is without any impulse that we know of from the Stone and moves in a double circle and with a double and contrary stream in the same Pipes contrary to the Laws of the Circulation of the Blood in Animals which has naturally but one Currant and one Road round for the whole Mass of Vessels in which the Circulation of the Blood is concerned is but one continued Pipe Until the Nature of the Effluvia is better known no very satisfactory Account can be given of the most common Phoenomena of the Loadstone ex gr why it does not draw to it all Bodies alike why a great Loadstone though weak extends its vertue much farther than a small one though strong Why a Loadstone communicates its vertue to Iron as soon as it touches it nay even at some distance and gives it the properties of a Loadstone The Truth is the Earth's being a great Magnet seems to me a meer Vision and Fable for this reason because it is not Iron 'T is true Iron Mine is the most common of all Minerals and found almost in all places but it holds not any proportion with the rest of the Fossils of the Earth and is not at a guess as a million to other Fossils This seems evident to any one who has well considered the Chalky Mountains and Cliffs the high Rag-stone Mountains and Lime Stone Cliffs the several Quarries and Pits sunk into the Bowels of the Earth for Coal and Lead c. how little Iron there is to be found in comparison of other Matters Add to this that very little of that very Iron Mine which is to be found any where is Magnetick or capable of obedience to the Magnet till it is calcined Whence therefore should all those Magnetick Effluvia arise which are supposed every where plentifully to incompass the Earth And why should they be supposed to be every where wandring in the Air since 't is evident they make haste to return to the Stone that emitted them and are as afraid to leave it as the Child the Mother before it can go Towards the discovery of the Nature of the Effluvia of the Loadstone such Particulars as those in my Opinion ought chiefly to be considered and prosecuted with all industry The Loadstone is very good if not the best Iron Mine The sole Fusion of the Loadstone turns it into Iron The Fire destroys its very virtue and so does Vitrification Iron Fire will make Iron Mine own the Loadstone and turn to a Magnet Rust into which all Iron will naturally turn and the reduction of Iron again to its Mine will take away all the Magnetick capacity of Iron A Loadstone cannot be made to alter its Poles but Iron may nor be destroyed but by the Fire A great and long Bar of Iron is naturally a Loadstone if held up perpendicularly and it changes its Poles at the pleasure of him that holds it A strong Loadstone loses much of its virtue by touching Iron but after a few days recovers it again A small and weak Loadstone cannot touch to give its virtue to a great lump of Iron A Loadstone exposed to the Air is spoilt in time The deeper the Vein of Iron Mine is where Loadstone is found the better the Stone and how far this holds true for I do not doubt but a very hard Stone may be found near the day as well as deeper A Ruler or long Plate of Steel is much better touched with the virtue of the Loadstone than a Plate of meer Iron of the same figure but on the contrary a Plate of Iron sticks much faster to the Loadstone than a Plate of Steel so as if a Loadstone draws up a Plate of Steel of 3 Ounces it will draw up a Plate of Iron of four Ounces and more Why Iron fastned to the Poles of a Magnet does so vastly improve its strength as to be 150 times stronger than when Naked Since therefore a Loadstone is nothing else but good Iron Mine and may be turned into Iron and Iron most easily and of its self into Load-Stone the way to find out the Nature of those Magnetick Effluvia seems to be to enquire strictly into the Nature of Iron Mine and Iron it self and not to run giddily into Hypotheses before we are well stocked with the Natural History of the Load-Stone and a larger quantity of Experiments and Observations relating to Iron and its Mine with all the Difference and Species of them which I think has hitherto been little heeded For Nature will be its own Interpreter in this as well as in all other Matters of Natural Philosophy Mr. Butterfield in another Conversation told me He had observed Load-Stones which were strong without arming and being armed had not that great advantage by it as one could have expected And that on the contrary there were others which had a more incredible Virtue when armed than they did promise That it seldom happens that a Load-Stone hath as much Virtue in one of its Poles as in the other and that a bit of Iron is toucht equally well at either of the Poles of one and the same Load-Stone That there are Load-Stones which take up much and which notwithstanding are incapable of well touching Iron so that a Stone armed which takes up seven Pound yet cannot Communicate to a Ruler of Iron the Virtue of taking up a very small Needle That a Load-Stone of 10 Ounces being reduced to the weight of 6 Ounces or thereabouts did almost the same effect as before c. I caused Mr. Butterfield to make the Slate Load-Stone into a Terella and when shod it was indeed but of little force but I observed its Poles to lie level with the Laminae of which it was composed N. B. A strong Load-Stone ought to have large Irons and a weak one but thin Irons so that a Stone may be over-shod M. Guanieres I waited upon the Abbot Droine to Visit Monsieur Guanieres at his Lodgings in the Hostel de Guise This Gentleman is Courtesie it self and one of the most Curious and Industrious Persons in Paris His Memoires Manuscripts Paintings and Stamps are infinite but the method in which he disposes them is very particular and useful He shewed his Porteseiulles in Folio of Red Spanish Leather finely adorned In one for Example He had the General Maps of England then the particular Maps of the Counties then the Maps of London and Views about it Then the Stamps of all the particular Places and Buildings of Note about it and so of all the Cities in England and Places and Houses of Note of the Counties In other Book-Cases he has the Stamps of the States-Men of England Nobility of both Sexes Souldiers Lawyers Divines Physicians and Men of Distinction And in this Method he hath all Europe by themselves His Rooms are filled with the Heads of a vast number of Men of Note in Oil Paintings and Miniatures or Water-Colours Amongst the rest an Original of
draws up One pound 2. A Smooth Loadstone weighing One drachm two scruples fourteen grains draws up Eighteen ounces that is Eighty two times its weight 3. Another Smooth Loadstone weighing Sixty five grains draws up Fourteen ounces that is One hundred and forty four times its weight There is a Loadstone no bigger then a Hazel Nut which took up a huge Bunch of Keys We have a very large Slate Loadstone in the Repository at Gresham-Colledge at least 6 inches over This also is but weak Whether the Laminae do spoil the vertue as though they were but so many distinct Stones packt together And yet a Loadstone which takes up ex gr 6 pound weight cut by the Axis in two halves and both halves shod again will take up 8 pound It is plain that Experiments are better made with a Terrella or spherical Loadstone than a square one and his way of capping the Terrella is very well contrived A square Loadstone made into a Terrella will near take up as much weight as it did before though a great deal of the Stone is lost in the rounding by virtue of the different shooing He entertained us full two hours with Experiments neatly contrived about the effects of the Loadstone The Experiment of approaching a Loadstone to the Spring of a Watch is very fine it causes the Ballance to move very swift and brought yet nearer to stop quite and cease moving Another Experiment was an inch broad Plate of Iron turned into a Ring of about 4 inches diameter which had evidently two North and two South Poles which he said he had seen in a Loadstone and had contrived this in imitation of Nature The working of them with filings of Steel drigged upon a Plate set upon the Ring did clearly manifest the double Polarity Also the suspending of a Needle in the Air and a Ball of Steel upon the point of it by a Thred which a weight kept down that it could not ascend higher than such a distance within the sphere of the activity of the Loadstone Again the free working of the Needle in Water through Brass Gold Stone Wood or any thing but Iron He told us he had a Stone which would work through a Stone Wall of 18 inches Lastly he demonstrated by many Experiments how the Effluvia of the Loadstone work in a Circle that is what flows from the North Pole comes round and enters the South Pole on the contrary what flows from the South Pole enters the North and in its way puts in order all such Filings of Steel it meets with that is according to the disposition of its own whirling and the circular lines it keeps in its flying about the Loadstone Indeed it is pleasant to see how the Steel Filings are disposed and in their arangement one clearly sees a perfect image of the road which the whirling invisible Matter takes in coming forth and re-entring the Poles of the Loadstone He shewed us a Loadstone sawed off that piece of the Iron Bar which held the Stones together at the very top of the Steeple of Chartres This was a thick Crust of Rust part of which was turned into a strong Loadstone and had all the properties of a Stone dug out of the Mine Mans de la Hire has Printed a Memoire of it also Mons de Vallemont a Treatise The very outward Rust had no Magnetic Virtue but the inward had a strong one as to take up a third part more than its weight unshod This Iron had the very grain of a solid Magnet and the brittleness of a Stone These Gentlemen who have writ of this have in my Opinion miss'd their purpose when they enquire how it comes to pass to be thus turned for it is certain all Iron will in time go back into its Mineral Nature again notwithstanding the Artifice of Melting and Hammering I have seen of those Hammered Spanish Cannon which had lain many years buried in the Ground under the old Fort at Hull in Yorkeshire which were thoroughly turned into brittle Iron Stone or Mine again and would not own the Loadstone no more than the rest of our English Iron Mine till it was calcined and then shewed it self to be good Iron again Also I have seen and had by me a piece of Wood taken out of Lough-Neagh in Ireland which was not only good Iron Mine but a Loadstone too so that it is evident Nature in this sort of Mine goes backwards and forwards is generated and regenerated and therefore Mons de la Hire has well used the Term of Vegetation in this Affair which I had done many years before in my Book De Fontibus Medicatis Angliae that is out of Iron Mine will grow and out of Mine 〈◊〉 Loadstone as in the petrified Wood. I do not relate these things as though they were new Diâ—…veries the World has long since known â—…em by the great Inâ—…y of our most Learned Countryâ—… Gilbert of Colchester to whom little 〈◊〉 been added after near 100 years thâ—…h very many Men have written of tâ—…â—…bject and formed divers Hypotâ—…s to solve these Phoenomena A Dâ—…chman Mr. Hartsoeker one of the Academy des Sciences has published a Treatâ—se of the Principles of Natural Philosâ—phy and has accounted for these and many more Experiments of this Nature which he had shewn him by Mr. Butterfield whom he mentions very Honourably And yet after all the nature of these Effluvia are little known and what is said by Des Cartes of Screw fashioned Particles and the invisible Channels and Pores and Pipes of the Loadstone are all meer Fancies without any Foundation in Nature It is well called by some a certain Magnetick Matter but what properties it hath is little understood It is very strange to me that a little Loadstone of that prodigious force should have so short a sphere of activity and not sensibly to affect Iron above an inch or two and the biggest and strongest not above a foot or two We see the Vortices in Water how wide they work round about them vastly increasing the Circles and what little resistance the Air can make to a body of that subtilty as the Effluvia of the Loadstone which can with ease penetrate all Bodies whatsoever Marble Flints Glass Copper Gold without any sensible diminution of its virtue Again we see the Flame of a Lamp in Oil or Tallow or Wax how short it is and how long and tapering it is in Spirit of Wine If therefore the Magnetick Matter was darted out of infinite small Pipes and was of the nature of a more subtile and invisible Flame why does it not continue its course in a direct line to a great length but return so suddenly We see the perspiration of our Skins to rise into the Air and continue to mount which yet has but a weak impulse from the Heart being interrupted and broke off when it comes out of the Road of the Blood into the Ductus Excretorii But the Circle of the