It started with the discovery of the lodestone. The lodestone is an ugly brown stone that contains an oxide of iron. Geologists call it magnetite, and it is found magnetized in its natural state. Lodestones are not found in great quantities, but they do crop up at many different palaces in the world, generally where a good grade of iron ore is found.

The truth about lodestones is that they found man and not the opposite. Some people believe that the particular man they found was a camel driver. The ugly little brown stones that found him were stuck to the iron nails in his camel’s shoe. Nothing can express righteous indignation better than a camel with little stones sticking to his feet and the camel let his driver know it in no uncertain terms! For the purpose of this story, let us assume that the stones stuck just to one shoe of one camel and not to every shoe of the one-hundred camel caravan. The camel driver attributed this entire episode to too much fermented camel milk while driving in the hot sun. Nevertheless, he slipped the little brown stones into his pocket. He would certainly need proof for this story! His favorite pastime was to spin yarns about the fantastic encounters of a camel driver. No one would believe this one either!

This tale illustrates how easy it is to be discovered by a lodestone. Any time one drives a mule with iron shoes, or digs with an iron shovel, near the rich iron deposits of Turkey, Sweden, Spain, Peru, or Arkansas, one is likely to find a lodestone. The magnets cling to iron objects like leeches.

We will never know what crimes were committed or what con games were played over the possession of the little brown stones. We shall never know, either how many years lie between the discovery of the lodestone and the invention of the compass. Historians make such a statement as “At a very early time, the Chinese knew that a lodestone freely suspended would point north.” There may have been a period of one thousand to give thousand years in which the lodestone was used for nothing except to entertain the kids inside the house on rainy days.

Since lodestones are so widely scattered over the earth, we cannot trace their origin through known mineral deposits. If lodestones were found at one or just a few places, we could make archaeological studies that might give us some background on the lodestone and the invention of the compass. Unfortunately, this is not possible.

The Chinese often receive credit for the discovery of the lodestone and the invention of the compass. We might be hasty in drawing this conclusion because, if the Chinese did invent the compass, they failed to make full use of it. Never prominent in transportation they really didn’t need a compass. Foreign traders who wanted Chinese silk, tea, and spices came to get them. This made is unnecessary for the Chinese to ship their products. Their junks followed the coast. Inland commerce was carried by caravan. The caravan followed the lead camel, which went from one water hole to the next. It is almost impossible to get a lead camel to do anything else. In this type of travel, navigation is unnecessary, the compass adds nothing.

There is one important discovery that might have been made by the Chinese. Someone, and we don’t know who, gave us the concept of north and south as well as the language to describe it. This may not seem important, but with no concept of how the compass needle fits into the pattern of terrestrial magnetism, we have nothing but a toy.

Europeans lacked the concept. They thought the compass needle pointed toward a mountain or a star—they weren’t sure what. They believed that terrestrial magnetism was just a local condition. With this belief they could not adopt the compass as a navigational instrument that could be used anywhere.

The Greeks also had trouble. They expressed a direction as being that of one of “the right winds.” Here again values were used that did not necessarily apply outside of a particular area.

The Chinese said that the compass pointed south, which is relatively true. The magnetic needle swings on a pivot. One end of the needle points south, the other north. Navigators call over the world have developed the practice of reading the compass from the north end of the needle. It is possible, however, to navigate with the south end.

Regardless who invented the compass, the sailors of the Mediterranean eventually came up with a much better instrument than the one who used by the Chinese. This judgment is made solely on the basis of the westerns superior feats of navigation. Their compass was probably made of better material. If you assume this fact, you leave the door open for those who argue that the compass was discovered independently by more than one person or group of persons.

While examining popular concepts, we should take a look at the early compass. Here and there we can find pictures of the original concept. They show a stone floating on a chip of wood. The whole “assembly” is floating in a soup bowl. One assumes it is a ceramic or wooden bowel. These illustrations suggest that the lodestone floating on the chip is freely suspended, will immediately pop in to life and point unerringly toward the magnetic north pole.

You should take a soup bowl down form the shelf and float a lodestone on it. You will find that this concept can be eliminated as a stage in the development of the compass. First, you will observe the great size of the piece of wood necessary to flat the heavy stone. The lodestone will sink the chip unless it is rather large. It tends to capsize, since its weight centers above the waterline. As you adjust weights and flats to practical sizes, you find you need a vessel about the size of a dishpan and a block of wood the size of a brick. But the problem still is not solved. Any movement or swirl overcomes the magnetic force and makes the compass erratic. Also, the magnetic force of the lodestone draws the entire floating object against the north side of the bowl, where it cannot rotate. This compass is such a delicate thing that you must place it on something stationary like your living room floor on the beach. Set it up in the evening, get a full night’s sleep, an then read it the following morning—if the wind isn’t blowing.

A somewhat similar and useful experiment along this to the hot motor on the beer cooler. One must take into account local disturbances.

Observers of this experiment agreed to the man that this compass was less than useless, that if they had nothing better tan it they would follow the beach, a star, or even the eight winds. This bowl of water compass holds a similar place in history to the picture of George Washington standing up in a rowboat while crowing the Delaware. This compass simply was no factor in promoting scientific navigation.

There are some refinements to it, however, that are worth mentioning. Some ingenious navigator magnetized a two-inch length of iron wire. He placed this nail inside a hollow reed or straw, plugged both ends, and sealed it with wax. The reed caused enough displacement of the nail’s magnetic force to permit the entire assembly to float freely upon a bowl of water. Since the reed was small and light, it readily pointed to magnetic north. When not in use, it could be carried in a seaman’s pocket or worn around his neck on a string.

Archaeologists will never uncover one of these compasses because they invariably go back to being kitchen utensils. During a shipwreck, the floating magnet floats away, the navigator becomes food for the fish, and nothing is left but the soup bowl. Whether you are an archaeologist or not, what can you make of a soup bowl except that it is something form which to eat soup?

While the compass was waiting to be invented, the navigators who needed it went about their business as if they actually had it. It chills the blood to think of the extensive travel that was made under very primitive navigational conditions. Archaeologists are finding evidence of trade between China and Egypt and its neighboring countries as early as 4,000 B.C. Trade routes were well established before the compass was invented. A study of them therefore does not reveal anything about the history of the compass.

Early navigators apparently used the “somethin’ system.” There was “somethin’” that caused them to arrive at their destination. We don’t know what it was. An excellent example of this type of navigation was practiced by the Polynesians who floated halfway across the Pacific on a raft equipped with a primitive sail. They carried their wives, families, pigs, and chickens. They had little control over their raft. Their objective was simply to remain afloat until they were able to drift up on a beach. The word to describe this kind of travel is drifting.

The Vikings seem to have been the most successful of the “something’ system” navigators. Apparently they were the first to arrive anywhere and the last to use the lodestone. It is generally agreed that they were the first white men to reach America. They didn’t bother to mention it, probably because the natives had nothing worth plundering. They nevertheless crisscrossed the North Atlantic in their lightweight oak hulls. They sailed with complete abandon. We wonder what guided them in the foggy North Atlantic.

There obviously was an instinctive navigational sense in these early mariners. They understood the basic concept of navigation even though they had no words to describe their methods. They understood that if they sailed out to sea for ten days they would need ten days to sail back to land. They also knew that certain winds picked up at sea would carry them in given directions. They kept track of this information and traveled north with the south wind in the spring and south with the north wind in the fall. Old sailors sniffed the winds, cut notches in their tally sticks, watched the stars—and were able to tell where they were. They couldn’t explain why they knew or point to their position on a map, but they were not lost.