
5
2.1 Historical Background
Magnetism and magnetic elds were one of the old-
est physical phenomena investigated and subjected to
measurements. The effect of attraction (or repulsion)
between pieces of some lodestones has been known as
long as iron smelting.* Moreover, it was observed that
small pieces of this rock spontaneously rotated along
north–south direction. Thus, no wonder that such an
effect was applied to pointing north direction in the
compass—written records show that ancient Chinese
used the compass (Si Nan) between 300 and 200 BC
†
(Campbell 2001).
Thales of Miletus (640–546 BC) invest