Man has known about magnetism for thousands of years and who knows, maybe longer than that. We know that the ancient Greeks knew about it, because lodestones were discovered in the town of Magnesia, the people were known as Magnates. A lodestone is a rock with a naturally occurring magnetic force. The Greeks were not the only ancient race to know of lodestones.It is known that the early Chinese also knew about the magnetic properties of lodestones. So exactly what is a lodestone? It is made of Magnetite which is a form of iron ore. Magnetite is not necessarily magnetic. It is believed that if Magnetite is struck by lightning, it then becomes magnetic and that is how a lodestone is born. The ancients, upon seeing this marvel, thought that lodestones had healing powers and they usedit to try and cure certain ailments. Today, there are still people that believe this and the sale of magnets for health is a big business. There was also a mysticism factor attached to the lodestone. Ancient people thought that it could attract good luck. Lodestones are still for sale today and if you want to see for yourself, just go to http://buylodestones.com *.

An ancient Greek myth tells of a boy, who was a shepard, named Magnes, who thrust his iron staff into a hole containing magnetite and found that he could not remove it. Ptolemy Philadelphos had a temple built of magnetite in Alexandria over 2300 years ago. The idea was that he was going to suspend a metal statue in mid air. What he didn't realize is that if magnetite is magnetized, the magnetism will wear off over time. I wouldn't want to have been sitting under the statue when that happened. Ancient Egyptians wrote about bio magnetism over 3,500 years ago and today this is one of the newer sciences. In case you don't know what I am talking about, it is the ability of some living organisms to produce Magnetite. The Magnetite is magnetic. It is believed that is how some organisms can detect the Earth's magnetic field. In an article on the subject, an amazing find was discussed," work with high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and electron diffraction on human brain tissue extracts of the cerebral cortex, cerebellum, and meninges (membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord) identified magnetite-maghemite crystals."  The author is talking about humans. :Yes, this magnetic material has been found in tiny quantities in our brains.

Bar Magnet Compared To Earth's Magnetic Field
Photo Source: NASA

Many say that the ancient Chinese understood the lodestone better than anyone else and this is why they were eventually able to exploit it for their own uses. While most people believe that the Chinese invented the compass around 1,000 A.D., there are references in Chinese texts that go all the way back to 100 A.D. that talk about the "south-pointer". What was this "south-pointer" that they were talking about? It is believed that this was the first compass and was created from a lodestone spoon mounted on top of an earthenware bowl in such a way that it was free to spin. One function of the Emperor was that he had to plow a ritual furrow in a southerly direction. This was done to ensure the Earth's fertility. The compass was a tremendous help to him in this endeavor. Notice that today we think of the compass pointing to magnetic north while the ancient Chinese thought of it from the other end of the pointer. Both would be right, depending on which end of the needle you were looking at.

It is thought by a few, that the ancient Egyptians used magnetism, in some way we no longer understand, to build the pyramids. They base this on the fact that there are many cities built, in the ancient world, in places that are almost inaccessible, such as mountain tops, where huge blocks of stone were used. To this day, no one can figure out how this was done. This same people cite the example of the Coral Castle in Florida. This is a huge building built by one man. Even the furniture is made from coral. I am talking about blocks of coral that weigh 30 tons in some cases. As if that wasn't enough, he moved the thing from one place to another and all he had was a truck and block and tackle which was insufficient to lift blocks of that weight. These people think that he rediscovered some method for moving these blocks that had something to do with the Earth's magnetic field.

Barrel Magnet Attracting Metal Particles
Photo Source: NASA

Magnetism and electricity are linked and it has been shown that the ancients knew about electricity and even used it, in limited ways. Remember that today electricity is made mostly in generators that use magnets. The ancient Minoans were said to have giant metal poles on either side of the doorways on some temples to attract lightning. This gave the temple an awesome appearance in a storm, which amazed the populace. It is said that the ancient Egyptians employed similar rods, but they were made of copper. Actually the lightning rod was invented thousands of years before Benjamin Franklin got credit for its invention. As far as I know, he was the first person to use it to protect buildings. The Baghdad battery was discovered in 1936 and its age ranges from about 250 B.C. to 640 A.D. Models of it have been made and it was shown to be able to send out a current of about one volt. If one takes an iron nail and winds a wire around it and connects a battery, he will get magnetism. Could this be why the Baghdad battery was created, to make magnets to heal people? We have no evidence that the ancients knew about electromagnets, but like so many other things, we had no evidence they knew about batteries, yet the Baghdad battery exists. There are a small minority of scientists that think that it isn't a battery, but if had an iron rod, with a copper tube around it that goes into a vase like bowl that had traces of vinegar in it, which would have acted as an electrolytic liquid. As they say, a cat, is a cat, is a cat. To call this object anything other than a battery, is just trying to deny that the ancients were more advanced than we first thought.

It is amazing, that when you look at history through the eyes of a westerner, you find so many wrong, so called facts. An example of this might be something like the printing press or moveable type. The invention is credited to Johannes Gutenberg in 1440 yet the Chinese had printing presses a thousand years before and were printing books regularly. The Chinese inventors created printing, the paper, and movable type. It was made from wood or ceramics. The first Chinese printed book, that we know of, is from 400 A.D. and is the Diamond Sutra which was translated from Indian. Some say however, that the book is from around 850 AD. It was found sealed in a cave in China. Alessandro Volta is credited with the invention of the first practical battery in 1880 yet we know that the Baghdad battery worked. Even the discovery of America by Columbus is in error. There is evidence everywhere that many different cultures sailed here way before he did. We seem to think that only western history matters, but there are some of us that want to know the real history of things and I am one of them.

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