In 1600 William Gilbert, son of a gentleman, and physician to
Queen Elizabeth, wrote a book on terrestrial magnetism which
founded the science of electricity. He cultivated the method of
experiment and of inductive reasoning from observation and
insisted on the need for a search for knowledge not in books but
in things themselves. He showed that the earth was a great magnet
with a north pole and a south pole, by comparing it to loadstones
made into spheres in which a north and south pole could be found
by intersecting lines of magnetism indicated by a needle on the
stone. The vertical dip of the needle was explained by the
magnetic attraction of the north pole. He showed how a loadstone's
declination could be used to determine latitude at sea. He showed
how the charge of a body could be retained some time by covering
the body with some non-conducting substance, such as silk. He
distinguished magnetism from electricity, giving the latter its
name. He discovered that atmospheric conditions affected the
production of electricity, dryness decreasing it, and moisture
increasing it. He expounded the idea of Copernicus that the earth
revolves around the sun in a solar system. However, the prevailing
belief was still that the earth was at the center of the universe.
There was much mining of coal, tin, copper, lead, and iron in the
1600s. Coal was transported from the coal pits down to the rivers
to be loaded onto ships on coal wagons riding on wooden rails.
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