The earliest record of magnetic needle in Europe is an ancient French poem called Bible, written by Pingdingshan de Provinse. According to Barry, this poem was written around 1 190 years ago. The earliest magnetic needle record in China was more than 100 years earlier than that in Gu.
The author of the second record of the magnetic needle in Europe is French historian Jacques de Vitri, who went to Palestine in the fourth Crusade around 1204. In his book "History of the East", he said that in 1204, he had observed and used navigation instruments, which were necessary for driving sailors.
The Florentine grammarian Brunetto Latini 1260 wrote a book "tresor" in French in Paris, in which the polarity of magnetic finger and needle was explicitly mentioned. He may have seen magnets and needles in roger bacon, England.
Riccioli, a Jesuit, said in his book "Geography et" that a French navigator used a magnetic needle in St. Louis, which was supported by two pipes and floated in a small basin. However, magnetic needles appeared in France, especially during the Crusades.
Gilbert said in his book De Magnate in 1600 that Kyle Poirot brought the compass from China to Italy in 1260.
Europeans knew about the application of magnetic needle, and it was in the late 12 and 13 century, that is, the Crusade era, that Europeans began to know about magnetic needle and its application in navigation.
The first record of Arabia sailing with a magnetic needle was in the works of Bailak in 1282, and he remembered it as 1242. He said: In the Syrian Sea, when the stars can't be seen at night, the captain uses a magnetic needle floating on the water, fills a basin full of water in the windless place on the ship, inserts a needle into a balsa wood nail or a short reed pole, makes the needle cross the wood, puts it in the basin, floats on the water with the wood, and then holds the magnetic needle in his hand and moves close to the water, so that the needle rotates to the right on the water. This man has seen a magnetic needle. He also said that the captain sailing in the Indian Ocean threw the "thin iron fish" into the water, and the iron fish floated on the water, with its head and tail pointing north and south, which was invented by China people.
By 1242, everyone in Europe was sailing with a compass. It's all about north and south, not north and south; The Arabs adopted the application method of China. 1242 The floating needles seen by Bala in the Syrian Sea and those seen by Latini in Oxford, England in 260 are exactly the same as those described in116 in Materia Medica. The iron fish recorded by Bala in the Indian Ocean is also exactly the same as the guide fish recorded in Shilin Guangji.
1865, Jacob thought that China people had known the magnetic needle before BC, but he didn't believe the compass of the Duke of Zhou.
London's Nature has published two articles: one was published in 1876 with the signature "K"; One copy was transcribed from the special issue of North China Herald in 189 1 year. Both articles believe that China people invented the compass in ancient times.
1923, L.de Saussure also thought that the polarity of the magnetic finger was known in China BC in his paper The Invention of the Compass.
Western scholars speculate that the mechanism of compass can only use magnets. Before Friedrich F.Hirth, most western scholars tended to point to the rotation of South Locomotive, which was controlled by a compass hidden inside. This concept was not broken until after A.D. Moore.
1892, Chalmer put forward the viewpoint of attacking China people for inventing the compass in ancient times, and Zhai Lisi even put forward the incorrect argument that China people invented the compass suspiciously. He said: "China people have never asked to say that this is their invention, but foreign scholars insist that this is China's invention, so China people think this priority is a fact that does not need to be discussed." However, in 1924, pelliot firmly stated in his communique that the compass was an invention of China.