The Magnetic Art

Experiment V.

Let a concave plate made of the best steel, of the round length of a finger, be applied most tightly to the convex polar surface of the magnet and artificially connected. With such an instrument, the magnet, which previously lifted only 8 ounces of iron, will now lift 24 ounces. But also, the greatest power of the joining—or rather united—nature is observed when two magnets are joined with their corresponding iron poles in such a way that they mutually attract and lift each other; thus a weight of 40 ounces is lifted, whereas one unarmed stone only draws 8 ounces of iron, as appears in the stones A, B, C, D. The reason for this is that iron is united more strongly and pertinaciously to an armed magnet than to a magnet [alone]; for by the contiguous presence of the magnet they are cemented together, and when the armature has conceived the magnetic vigor from its presence, and the other added piece of iron has simultaneously induced vigor from the present magnet, the iron is so solicited by the desire to marry, and strives with such fervent desire to meet and adhere to the magnet, that it seems to have changed all its gravity into lightness. Indeed, if it is hindered even by its own weight, it raises its peak like hands toward the stone, nodding and trembling, and coaxing it gently, impatient of how its own establishment is weighed down, and it confesses itself not content unless it is joined by a kiss at least, and rests as if with its desire satisfied. But he who desires to read more about the armature and its strength, let him consult Ludovicus Alcazar a Spanish Jesuit theologian, 1554–1613 in chapter 2. in Apocalypse, p. 4, N. 27.