On the Loadstone
Notebook
William Gilbert's De Magnete (On the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies, 1600) is the first great work of experimental physical science in England and the founding text of the study of magnetism and electricity. Physician to Queen Elizabeth I, Gilbert systematically investigated the loadstone with his spherical 'terrella,' concluding boldly that the Earth itself is a giant magnet—so explaining the compass and the dip of the magnetic needle. Insisting on experiment over received authority, he coined the term 'electricity' and profoundly influenced Kepler and Galileo. The translation is P. Fleury Mottelay's of 1893.
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