Place a magnet on a stand to raise it a little above the table; then
bring a small sewing needle containing a thread, within a little of the
magnet, keeping hold of the thread to prevent the needle from attaching
itself to the magnet. The needle in endeavoring to fly to the magnet,
and being prevented by the thread, will remain curiously suspended in
the air, reminding us of the fable of Mahomed’s coffin.
TO MAKE ARTIFICIAL MAGNETS WITHOUT THE AID EITHER OF NATURAL LOADSTONES
OR ARTIFICIAL MAGNETS.
Take an iron poker and tongs, or two bars of iron, the larger and the
older the better, and fixing the poker upright, hold to it with the
left hand near the top by a silk thread, a bar of soft steel about
three inches long, one-fourth of an inch broad and one-twentieth
thick; mark one end, and let this end be downwards. Then grasping the
tongs with the right hand a little below the middle, and keeping them
nearly in a vertical line, let the bar be rubbed with the lower end of
the tongs, from the marked end of the bar to its upper end about ten
times of each side of it. By this means the bar will receive as much
magnetism as will enable it to lift a small key at the marked end; and
this end of the bar being suspended by its middle, or made to rest on
a joint, will turn to the north, and is called its north pole, the
unmarked end being the south pole. This is the method recommended by
Mr. Caxton, in his process, which he regarded superior to those in
former use, and of which a more detailed account will be found in his
interesting volume.