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August 06, 2010
Compass
běi
指南针
zhǐnán zhēn
dōngběi
xīběi
dōng
xī
dōngnán
xīnán
nán
Click to see how to write direction characters!
August 06, 2010
The Invention of the Compass
1. The magnetic compass is an old Chinese invention , probably first made in China during the
Qin dynasty (221-206 B.C.). Chinese fortune tellers used lodestones (a mineral composed of an
iron oxide which aligns itself in a north-south direction) to construct their fortune telling boards.
2. Eventually someone noticed that the lodestones were better at pointing out real directions,
leading to the first compasses.
3. They designed the compass on a square slab which had markings for the cardinal points and the
constellations. The pointing needle was a lodestone spoon-shaped device, with a handle that
would always point south.
4. Magnetized needles used as direction pointers instead of the spoon-shaped lodestones
appeared in the 8th century AD, again in China, and between 850 and 1050 they seem to have
become common as navigational devices on ships.
指南针
zhǐ nán zhēn
August 06, 2010
NE
NW
E
W
SE
SW
S
N
W
S
E
August 06, 2010
The magnetic compass is an old Chinese invention, probably first made in China during the Qin dynasty (221-206
B.C.). Chinese fortune tellers usedlodestones (a mineral composed of an iron oxide which aligns itself in a northsouth direction) to construct their fortune telling boards.
The first person recorded to have used the compass as a navigational aid was Zheng He (1371-1435), from the
Yunnan province in China, who made seven ocean voyages between 1405 and 1433.
When Chinese first invented the compass, the needle was a magnetized ladle or spoon that symbolized many
things, including the timekeeping Ladle in the skies (successively Doumou, Nandou , and Beidou). The spoon
pointed to geographic south, which is why its name is "the south-pointing spoon." Chinese compasses have
always pointed to the magnetic north pole, which we call the geographic South Pole.
August 06, 2010
Si Nan is China's earliest south-north directionpointing device invented in the Spring and Autumn
and Warring States Period. The word "Si" means
"pointing to" and "Nan" means "the South". As early
as more than 2,000 years ago, the Chinese
discovered that a type of mountain stone was
magnetic and they called it "magnetic stone". The
stone was polished and chiseled into the shape of a
dipper, which was placed on a mirror-smooth
bronze board carved with patterns indicating
directions. When the magnetic dipper on the board
stops turning, the handle of the dipper will point to
the exact south, with the other end pointing to the
exact north. This is Si Nan, the world's earliest
direction-pointing device invented by the Chinese.
August 06, 2010
"The south-pointing fish" was recorded in the documents of the
Northern Song Dynasty. Such direction-pointing device is a
thin steel plate cut into the shape of a fish magnetized in the
geomagnetic field. The tail of the fish is magnetized in the
geological direction of the North Pole, thus the tail has the
south magnetic pole and the head of the fish has the north
magnetic pole. When put into the water, the floating fish has
its head pointing to the south.
August 06, 2010
August 06, 2010