Talk:Lodestone

Magnetic Ability

Currently, it says "Lodestone is one of only two minerals that is found naturally magnetized; the other, pyrrhotite, is only weakly magnetic" however, this is not true. There is at least one more mineral, ilmenite, which is also weakly magnetic and found naturally magnetized. There may be others, too, but ilmenite is for sure on that list.AmeekoAnn (talk) 03:59, 24 February 2013 (UTC)

Literary References

There are several notable literary references to loadstones--for example, the loadstone from the Arabian Nights. I believe this was mentioned in the tale "The Dervish Abounader." I think mentioning these literary references would further develop the article. --Jp07 (talk) 01:49, 30 October 2008 (UTC) ==

Yes, you are right with your assumption.

To-morrow, by the end of the day,we shall come to a mountain of black stone,called loadstone, for thither the currentsbear us perforce. As soon as we comewithin a certain distance, all the nails in theships will fly out and fasten to the moun-tain, and the ships will open and fall topieces, for that God the Most High hasgifted the loadstone with a secret virtue, byreason whereof all iron is attracted to it;and on this mountain is much iron, howmuch God only knows, from the manyships that have been wrecked there fromold time. On its summit there stands adome of brass, raised on ten columns andon the top of the dome are a horse andhorseman of the same metal.

(Source: "Story of the Third Calender", in: "The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad", in: The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, translated by John Payne; Wikisource: https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Book_of_the_Thousand_Nights_and_One_Night/Story_of_the_Third_Calender)

I agree that this should be added to the article. 15000 Röntgen (talk) 00:04, 5 January 2024 (UTC)

Sorry, I copied the text in a way which sometimes ommited spaces. Here is a better version:

To-morrow, by the end of the day, we shall come to a mountain of black stone, called loadstone, for thither the currents bear us perforce. As soon as we come within a certain distance, all the nails in the ships will fly out and fasten to the mountain, and the ships will open and fall to pieces, for that God the Most High has gifted the loadstone with a secret virtue, by reason whereof all iron is attracted to it; and on this mountain is much iron, how much God only knows, from the many ships that have been wrecked there from old time. On its summit there stands a dome of brass, raised on ten columns and on the top of the dome are a horse and horseman of the same metal.

(Source is the same) 15000 Röntgen (talk) 00:07, 5 January 2024 (UTC)

The merge proposal

In its present state, the article says that lodestone is magnetite, but that is not really true. Magnetite is common, loadstone is rare (it is iron oxides magnetized by lightning). I will do some work in this article soon. /Pieter Kuiper (talk) 16:51, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

Reversal

I reverted an edit of the lead. For example it is not correct to say that it was discovered early on that freely suspended lodestones turn to the north. It was eons after the discovery of magnetic stones that the earth's magnetic field was discovered, and after that it took a long time to find out about the dip angle. /Pieter Kuiper (talk) 21:09, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

My intent was to say that lodestones were used as the first compasses, and were used for navigation. You're right, that was long before knowlege of the Earth's magnetic field, I may not have made it very clear. Isn't that the origin of the word lodestone, "leading stone"? I think that etymology should probably be included in the article. Also, I think it's important to include that man first discovered magnetism through the lodestone. --Chetvorno^TALK 23:40, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

Lodestones were not often used as compasses themselves, I think, but it was used to magnetize steel needles. Such needles could easily loose their magnetization, so it was a goed idea to have a lodestone on board. In Dutch, lodestone is called "sailing stone" (zeilsteen). /Pieter Kuiper (talk) 18:49, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

The references I've seen, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, say that lodestones (pivoted so they can turn) were the first magnetic compasses, and that iron needle compasses came later. One of the first examples were the lodestone "spoons" of 1st century BCE China (1, p.1-21, 2, p.2, 3, p.241, 4, p.1-3, 13) which existed at least 2 centuries before needle compasses, although they appear to be used for geomancy not navigation. Therefore I will change the lead paragraph back again. --Chetvorno^TALK 19:26, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Vague References

"Only magnetite with a particular crystalline structure," is too vague. Please make reference to the Actual crystalline structure, such as "orthorhombic", "rhombohedral", "cubic", etc.. --Shanjaq^TALK 13:19, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

It also depends on composition, and different compostions/crystal structures/microstructures may increase the coercivity. /Pieter Kuiper (talk) 18:45, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Indeed. Can you please add an example or two? /Shanjaq (talk) 13:45, 12 June 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.231.0.149 (talk) Italic text

Recent trivial popular culture addition

An editor has been repeatedly adding this ungrammatical, misspelled piece of popular culture trivia to the History section

Square Enix of Final Fantasy XIV has used this to be thei rname for their armory website fo rFinal Fantasy Xiv,.

My feeling is that this is simply not notable enough to include. Every stray noun used for part of a video game does not merit a mention in a WP article. If it is included, it certainly does not belong in the History section but should go in a Popular culture section. Anyone else have an opinion? --Chetvorno^TALK 05:01, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

References

Planet Earth's first magnetic stone.

In planet Earth's beginning (that is, a long time ago) there was only one magnetic stone separate but laying on the planet and the planet itself was also magnetic at that stage and the stone was stolen just as it was also that later on in time the first Apple tree was cut down illegally. To provide proof of that would require reverse time travel for you to see the thief which is not easy to do. That "not easily provable" case is why I intend to post this true and correct information to the talk page and not the main article page because it would most likely from previous experience be edited and because I would like it to lay there for researchers who can apply reverse logic to their current daily situation and experiences to realise that the previous one stone plus planet Earth statement is true and correct.

For those of you maybe finding that hard to comprehend then maybe yourself imagining a single rock flying through space (planet Earth) receiving its first crack (Planet earth plus one stone) might make it easier for you.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Jonathanhaswon (talk • contribs) 02:05, 30 November 2016 (UTC)