AD 1600
William Gilbert
The Earth is a big magnet!
William Gilbert (AD 1540-1603), an English physician and physicist, discovered the magnetic properties of the earth and explained why (and how) a compass works. In the picture, the blacksmith is hammering the magnetism into a red hot iron bar by holding it along the earth's meridian and hammering it as the iron cools. This makes the iron a magnet aligned on the north pole.
Gilbert's explanation for what caused the earth's magnetism was that it was part of the pimal energy of Mother Earth. It will not be until 1830, that a better understanding of the earth's magnetism is proposed by the French scientist, Ampere.
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