Magnetism

In Our Time: Science

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 29 September 2005

⏱️ 42 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of magnetism. Pliny the Elder, in his Historia Naturalis, tells a story of a legendary Greek shepherd called Magnes who, while guiding his flock on Mount Ida, suddenly found it hard to move his feet. The nails of his sandals held fast to the rock beneath them, and the iron tip of his crook was strangely attracted to the boulders all around. Magnes had stumbled across the lodestone, or 'Magnetite', and discovered the phenomenon of magnetism. Plato was baffled by this strange force, as were Aristotle and Galen, and despite being used in navigation, supposedly suspended over the body of Mohammed and deployed in the pursuit of medical cures. St Thomas Aquinas thought magnets had souls. it was not until the late 16th century that any serious scientific attempt was made to explain the mystifying powers of the magnet. Descartes developed a particle theory of magnetism but the great Isaac Newton fought shy of the problem of what caused magnets to attract and repelWho pioneered the study of magnetism? What theories did they construct from its curious abilities and how was the power of the magnet brought out of the realm of magic and into the service of science? With Stephen Pumfrey, Senior Lecturer in the History of Science at the University of Lancaster; John Heilbron, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley; Lisa Jardine, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary, University of London.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for down learning the In Our Time podcast. For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co.uk.
0:09.0	I hope you enjoy the programme.
0:11.0	Hello, Pliny the Elder in his historian naturalist tells a story of a legendary Greek
0:16.9	shepherd called magnays who, while guiding his flock on Mount Ida, suddenly found it hard to move
0:22.2	his feet. The nails of his sandals held fast
0:24.8	to the rock beneath them and the iron tip of his crook was strangely attracted to the boulders
0:29.6	all around. Magnays had stumbled across the lodestone or magnetite and discovered the phenomenon of magnetism.
0:37.0	Plato was baffled by this strange force as were Aristotle and Galen.
0:40.5	Despite being used in navigation first by the Chinese, supposedly suspended over the body of Mohammed,
0:46.0	and deployed in the pursuit of medical cures, apart from some 13th century scholastic studies,
0:51.0	it wasn't until the late 16th century that any serious scientific
0:55.4	attempt was made to explain the mystifying powers of the magnet.
0:59.6	Who pioneered the study of magnetism?
1:01.9	What theories did they construct from its curious abilities,
1:05.0	and how has the power of the magnet brought out of the realm of magic and into the service of
1:09.4	science? And do we really know what it is even now?
1:13.0	With me to discuss magnetism is Stephen Pumphrey,
1:16.0	senior lecturer in the History of Science at the University of Lancaster.
1:19.0	John Halbrun, emeritus professor of history
1:22.0	at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lisa Jardine, Professor of Renaissance Studies of Queen Mary, London.
1:29.0	Stephen Pumphrey, the fact that there was no satisfactory explanation for one lump of iron attracting another
1:34.8	or a magnet moving its position to point in one direction didn't stop people using them.
	...

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