Earliest records show a spoon shaped compass made of lodestone or magnetite ore, referred to as a "South-pointer" dating back to sometime during the Han Dynasty (2nd century BCE to 2nd century CE).

Have you ever played with a magnet and stuck it in a sandy wash? It will pick up lots of black stuff. Some call it black sand; some might think ...

where large outcrops retain the magnetic imprint in rocks known historically as lodestone, now named magnetite. There are legends how thousands of years ago in ancient Greece, a shepherd wearing ...