The Magnet Was An Accidental Discovery

So again, if, before the discovery of the magnet, anyone had said that a certain instrument had been invented by means of which the quarters and points of the heavens could be taken and distinguished with exactness, men would have been carried by their imagination to a variety of conjectures concerning the more exquisite construction of astronomical instruments; but that anything could be discovered agreeing so well in its movements with the heavenly bodies, and yet not a heavenly body itself, but simply a substance of metal or stone, would have been judged altogether incredible. Yet these things and others like them lay for so many ages of the world concealed from men, nor was it by philosophy or the rational arts that they were found out at last, but by accident and occasion, being indeed, as I said, altogether different in kind and as remote as possible from anything that was known before; so that no preconceived notion could possibly have led to the discovery of them.

Notes:

The idea that a bit of metal could point the way North was inconceivable until its lucky discovery.

Folksonomies: discovery awe luck

Taxonomies:
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/science/social science/history (0.170349)

Keywords:
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The Novum Organon, or a True Guide to the Interpretation of Nature

Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Bacon , Francis (2005-11-30), The Novum Organon, or a True Guide to the Interpretation of Nature, Adamant Media Corporation, Retrieved on 2011-05-17

Source Material [www.constitution.org]

Folksonomies: todo nature naturalism observation